
Book JYAlH^ 



7^ 



Cfi 



®ent^g Counfg (guibeg 

\ 

EDITED BY 

GEORGE A. B. DEWAR 



NORFOLK 



All rights reserved 



NOR FOLK 



BY 



WILLIAM A. DUTT 



WITH SPECIAL ARTICLES ON THE BIRD LIFE, BOTANY, ENTOMOLOGY, 

GEOLOGY, FISHING, SHOOTING, ETC., OF THE COUNTY BY THE 

REV. R. C. NIGHTINGALE, H. D. GELDART, CLAUDE 

MORLEY, F. E.S. , F. W. HARMER, F.G. S., 

AND OTHERS 



ILLUSTRATED BY J. A. SYMINGTON 




LONDON: J. M. DENT &f CO. 

ALDINE HOUSE, BEDFORD STREET, W.C. 

MCM 



^CV^4r 



' 02^ 



K.-^^ 



v-O 



CONTENTS 

Part E 

NORFOLK, ITS STORT AND SCENERY 

PAGE 

Introductory ....... I 

Itineraries 

^^ The City of Churches'' [Norivich) . . . 1 6 

Byways and an Old Turnpike {Norivich to Caistor 

Camp, Wymondham, and Thetford^ . . 37 

A Royal Town and a Flint Village {Thetford, 

Brandon, and the Great JVarren^ . . . 48 

Peggotty's Port {^Great Tarmoiith^ . . . 57 

A Night on Breydon . . . . . . 68 

By the Wild North Sea ( Tarmouth to Caister Castle, 

Cromer, Cley, Wells, and Hunstanton^ . . 77 

In the Prince s Country {Sandringham, Castle Rising, 

and King's Lynn^ . . . . .103 

An Excursion Across-country (^Norivich to East 

Dereham, Snvaffham, and Houghton^ . . 1 20 



Contents 



In Ann Boltyns Country {^Noriu'ich to Aylsham^ 
Bllcklingi and Cromer') 

The Broadland ...... 

Donvn the Tare from Nortuich to Reedham and 
Yarmouth ...... 

Up the Bure to Acle^ Wroxham, and Aylsham 

The Ant and its Broads .... 

The Thurncy Heigham Sounds, and Hickling Broad 

Up the Waveney from Breydon to Oulton Broad 

Oulton Broad to Beccles and Bungay 



• 133 


142 

7 


d 

. 150 


. 162 


173 


. 177 


182 


. 187 



?3att 3UE 

NORFOLK, ITS NATURAL HISTORY AND 
SPORT 

Bird Life in Norfolk {by The Rev. Robert C, 

Nightingale) . . . . . .191 

Botany in Norfolk {by H. D, Geldart) . . 199 

Entomology in Norjolk {by Claude M or ley, F.E.S., etc.) 207 

Geology of Norfolk {by F. IV, Harmer, F.G.S., etc.) 215 



Contents 



PAGE 



Shooting and Fishing in Norfolk {^by A. J. Rudd) . 226 

Sea Fishing 0^ Norfolk {^by E. A. Croxon^ . , 240 

Cycling in Norfolk (3y H. Aforriss) . . .243 

Part Mn 

The Chief Places of Interest in Norfolk . . . 251 

Gazetteer . . . .. . . .255 

Index . . . . . . . . 343 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Wroxham Broad 


3 O 


PAGE 

Frontispiece 


Norivich Cathedral . 


. 


(facing) 20 


The Castle 


. 


29 


Guild Hall, Nornvich . 


- 


33 


Wymnndham Church . 


. 


, , 41 


" The Bell," Thetford 


- 


52 


The Great Warren 


O 


54 


Rotu 99 . 


. 


59 


The Quay, Tarmouth . 


, 


62 


Breydon . 


. 


. . 69 


J Norfolk House-Boat 


- 


75 


Cromer 




. , 87 


Upper Sheringham 


- 


91 


Stiffkey . 


. 


97 


The Principal Entrance, 


Sandringham 


107 


Castle Rising 


• 


no 


Greyfriars 


• 


• 113 


The Custom House, King 


s Lynn . 


. 116 


Bishop HalVs Palace . 


. 


121 


West Front, The Priory, 


Castle Acre 


. 127 


Houghton Hall . 


' 


129 


Market Place, Aylsham 


• 


• 135 


Blickling Hall . 


• 


• 138 


A Wild-fotul Decoy . 


b 


• 154 



/ 



Illustrations 







I'ACilC 


Reaiham ...... 




159 


A Broaihman at Home 




160 


Acle Bridge . . . . . 




166 


St Benet's Ahhey 




167 


Horning Ferry . . . . . 




169 


Horning Street . . . . . 




170 


On the Ant near Irstead 




174 


Barton Broad . . . . ■ 


(facing) 


174/ 


Near Barton Broad . 




175 


Ludham ..... 




177 


On the Thiinie^ Poller He'igham 




179 


H'lcliling Broad ... 




180 


Burgh Castle .... 




183 


Fr'ilton Ijahe .... 




184 


"^I hnrlton ..... 




188 


The Neiv Cut .... 




189 


Section from Hunstanton to Tarmouthy 


showing the 




Geological Structure of the District 


. 


215 



I 



LIST OF MAPS 



FACING PAGE 



Noriuich to Wymondham^ Thetford and Brandon 
Noriuich to Yarmouth ..... 

Tarmouth to Caister Castle, Cromer, Cley and Wells 
Hunstanton, Sandringham, Castle Rising and Lynn . 
Norwich to Dereham, Snvaffham, Castle Acre and 
Houghton ....... 

Norwich to Aylsham, BUckling and Cromer 

The Broad land ....... 



I 



37 ^ 

57/ 

77/ 
103 y 

f2I •/ 

1331/ 
143^ 



Norfolk 

ITS STORT AND SCENERT 
By W. a. Dutt 

INTRODUCTORY 

We Norfolk folk, or " North Folk of East Anglia," are 
firmly of opinion that there is no county in England to 
compare with our own. When people tell us of the York- 
shire moors, we ask them if they have seen Dersingham 
Heath and the Great Warren. When they go into raptures 
over Windermere and Killarney, we invite them to take a 
cruise on Wroxham Broad. When they grow enthusiastic 
about the cathedral cities of other counties, we suggest 
that they should see Norwich. When they try to im- 
press us with descriptions of Norman castles outside our 
borders, we tell them of our castles at Norwich, Castle 
Rising, and Castle Acre. When they attempt to crush us 
with Stonehenge, we stand defiant on our Ancient British 
earthworks, or among the " Shrieking Pits" of Aylmerton. 
When they speak of abbeys and priories, we point to 
Bromholm, Binham and Walsingham ; and when they are 
reduced to silence, and some friend, sympathising with 
their discomfiture, comes to their aid with his impressions of 
Chatsworth and Blenheim, we smile indulgently and ask him 
what he thinks of Houghton, Blickling, and Holkham. 
Content with having upheld the honour of our county, we 
can then spare our would-be detractors further humiliation 
by not reminding them of the manifold beauties of Broad- 
land, glories of Poppyland, and the popularity of our charm- 
ing coast resorts. 



Norfolk 

And yet, notwithstanding all this, and in spite of the fact 
that so long ago as 1722 no less a personage than Daniel 
Defoe wrote a kind of guide-book to the Eastern counties, 
"particularly fitted for the reading of such as desire to travel," 
Norfolk's popularity as a holiday resort is of comparatively 
recent development. A century ago hardly anyone visited 
the county unless compelled by duty or business ; as to com- 
ing here for pleasure, no one ever thought of such a thing. 
Fifty years ago there was only one place on the coast 
where casual visitors could find accommodation elsewhere 
than at inns. Yarmouth, then, was of little repute save 
as a fishing-port ; Cromer had still many years to wait for 
fame ; the Broadland meres and rivers were unexplored, 
save by native wherrymen and fishermen ; and the ninety 
miles of East Anglian coast between Yarmouth and King's 
Lynn were less familiar to the English tourist than the sand 
dunes of the shores of Holland. Norwich, it is true, was 
a place of renown, and had been for several centuries ; but 
ihe people who visited Norfolk for the purpose of seeing 
Norwich were few in number, and seldom strayed far beyond 
the bounds of the " City of Churches." Even so recently 
as 1884, Dr Jessopp, than whom no one knows Norfolk 
better, lamented that there were no important watering- 
places in East Anglia, and that no pleasure-seekers came 
here, " bringing their money with them and leaving it behind 
them." The " discovery " of the Broadland and the mani- 
festation on the part of the Broadlanders and coast-dwellers 
of a disposition to welcome and accommodate strangers in 
their midst were practically contemporary events. Having 
once made up their minds that it would be to their interest 
to attract visitors to Norfolk, the inhabitants set about 
providing for them with enterprising expedition, and there 
is now no county in England where the comfort and 
convenience of tourists and less restless visitors are more 
considered and better attended to. 

The result has been more than satisfactory to Norfolk 
folk. Of late years the annual incursion of " aliens'' into 

2 



Introductory 

Norfolk has probably been larger than into any other English 
county, excepting Middlesex. The county has become a 
playground of all classes. The most popular of the world's 
princes has made a home here ; statesmen and city men, 
bishops and actors, have found rest on the quiet inland 
waters and health on the breezy cliffs of Cromer and 
Sheringham ; and the "masses" of London have pro- 
nounced Yarmouth their ideal holiday resort. As a matter 
of fact, Norfolk only needed to be known to attain the 
widest popularity. A variety of attractions have combined 
to make it famous. Once considered simply a flat, mono- 
tonous, uninteresting county, it has been found to possess 
something to please almost everybody. Increased facilities 
of travel have revealed delights that before were not dreamt 
of. Seekers of the picturesque have been astonished at the 
loveliness of much of the Norfolk scenery. Antiquaries 
have been delighted with the county's wealth of antiquities 
— at its grand old ruined castles, abbeys, and priories; 
ecclesiologists with the number and stateliness of its 
churches. The quaint old-world hamlets of the interior 
and the quiet fishing villages of the coast have charmed 
people tired of less secluded places ; and the bracing 
breezes which come to Norfolk laden with the salt savour 
of the North Sea waves have brought colour to cheeks 
which would have grown paler in the sunnier but more 
relaxing South. In the Broadland, yachtsmen and boating 
parties have found a district unique and full of delights un- 
imagined by those to whom Norfolk is an unknown land, 
while anglers have gained a paradise. To sum up, Norfolk 
has revealed itself a county of infinite variety and charm — 
a county where pleasant pastoral scenery suddenly gives 
way to wild sea-shore ; where wide heaths, purple with 
heather and golden with gorse or bracken, are found not 
only along the coast, but in the midst of lands given up to 
cultivation ; where lazy rivers wind through green pastures 
and bear voyagers into many a lovely lowland nook and 
"haunt of ancient peace." 

3 



Norfolk 

Statistics are dry literary diet to most readers, but some 
might complain if nothing were said concerning the dimen- 
sions, acreage, etc., of this county. Norfolk is one of the 
largest counties in England, only Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, 
and Devonshire exceeding it in size. Its greatest length, from 
east to west, is 67 miles ; its greatest breadth 43 miles. Of 
its 14C miles of boundary about two-thirds consists of coast- 
line. Its total area is 1,356,173 statute acres. Its popula- 
tion, at the time of the last census (1891), was 456,475. 
As to its natural features, its seaboard is of a varying 
character, being made up of wide, level salt marshes, once 
subject to periodical inundations, and still at times submerged ; 
marram-grassed sandhills, arid shingle ridges, and here and 
there, as at Mundesley, Cromer,^ Sheringham, and Hun- 
stanton, of fairly lofty cliffs. The greater part of the 
interior is cultivated, the county being the most productive 
agricultural district in England. It contains no extensive 
woodlands, but innumerable plantations, some of consider- 
able size, and is famous for its abundant game. The 
western portion comes within the bounds of Fenland, much 
of the land forming part of what is called the Bedford 
Level, a district which, until a few centuries ago, was 
almost entirely covered by water. It is difficult now to 
realise what West Norfolk was like in those days ; but 
some idea may be gained from Messrs Skertchly and 
Miller's work, "The Fenland," which says; — '* Great 
meres J existed which received the surplus waters; and, 
surrounded with reed-brakes, such as even now the 
county produces with surpassing beauty, afforded shelter to 
myriads of wild birds, which found abundant food in the 
waters. Dank morasses, covered with sedge and rush and 
flags, abounded on the peat-lands, and the cushion-clumps 
of sedge afforded a hazardous foothold to the nimble 
wayfarer. On these morasses, and on the firmer, or rather 

^ And at Sidestrand, too, one of the most charming seaside 
hamlets imaginable, with its perfect sands, its acres of poppies, 
and its " Garden of Sleep " by the cliff side. — Ed. 

4 



Introductory 

drier, soil, grass attained a rank luxuriance; and here the 
cattle grazed and throve wondrously. But in winter, nearly- 
all the peat-land was drowned, or as the old fenmen say, 
* surrounded,' and then the hardy inhabitants went from 
island to island in small boats, or travelled quickly over the 
smooth ice." Now, nearly the whole of this part has been 
drained, and changed into lush pastures and fruitful corn- 
fields, and, instead of experiencing periodical floods, it some- 
times suffers from a scarcity of water. The south-east 
corner of the county contains the marshlands, rivers, and 
meres of Broadland. In the neighbourhood of Thetford, 
Swaffharn, and Sandringham, are considerable tracks of 
heathland, some of them wild and lonesome, and, like the 
Broadland, abounding with bird life. Although subject, in 
winter and early spring, to keen sea winds, Norfolk is a 
very healthy county. 

Geologists are satisfied that ages ago that part of Eastern 
England which now comprises Norfolk and Suflx)lk was 
connected with the continent of Europe, probably by a wide 
expanse of fen and forest. Evidence of this is found in the 
similarity of the strata of the opposite shores of the North 
Sea, and the unearthing in Britain of the remains of animals 
which must have made their way into England before the 
connecting lands were submerged. Many of these remains 
are found in what is called the Norfolk Forest Bed, a 
geological division, belonging either to the base of the Pleis- 
tocene or the upper part of the Pliocene periods. For 
thousands of years the sea has carried on an incessant siege 
of the Norfolk coast, and the natural processes which 
resulted in the severing of England from the Continent are 
still going on. Since the days when Doomsday Book was 
written Norfolk has lost, or nearly lost, the villages of 
Shipden, Clare, Eccles, Whimpwell, Keswick, and Ness ; 
and Suffolk has seen practically the whole of Dunwich, the 
erstwhile famous capital of East Anglia, sink beneath the 
waves. Extensive inroads of the sea have occurred at 
varying intervals, damaging not only the coast-line hamlets, 

5 



Norfolk 

but submerging vast tracts of low-lying land as far inland as 
the Norfolk capital ; and even during the last decade great 
havoc was wrought by the waves. 

The earliest inhabitants of Norfolk of whom mention is 
made in ancient historical records were an Aryan people 
the Romans called Cimmerii, whom Dr Thurnam identi- 
fies with the broad-headed neolithic race of Belgium and 
North-eastern France, and to whom he attributes the 
construction of the round barrows found in the Eastern 
counties of England. There seems little doubt, however, 
that these Cimmerii had conquered an earlier race, a short, 
dark, long-headed type, variously called Iberians, Silu- 
rians, and Euskarians, who were, in all probability, the 
makers of what are known as the "long barrows." i 
This earlier race were a Stone Age people of whom 
many traces, in the shape of prehistoric dwellings and 
stone implements, have been discovered in some parts 
of Norfolk. More particularly has this been the case in 
the neighbourhood of Thetford and Brandon, where not 
only stone axes and arrowheads have been unearthed in 
considerable quantities, but pits are still to be seen where 
the flints of which the weapons were made were dug up 
and fashioned. 

That some of the prehistoric inhabitants of Norfolk 
were lake-dwellers was proved in 1851, when the West 
Mere at Wretham, a parish a few miles from Thetford, 
was drained. Under the mud, in the centre of the mere, 
a circular bank of hard white earth, between twenty and 
thirty feet across and about four feet high, was discovered. 
Close to the inner circumference of this ring was a well- 

1 Mr Joseph Stevens speaks of the Silurians or Sikires as "dark, 
short, narrow-skulled tribes . . . whose burial places are the ' long 
barrows,' sometimes chambered, containing stone implements of 
the Neolithic type, and whose descendants are present, as their 
appearance testifies, particularly in South Wales and Ireland, though 
they now speak a Celtic tongue." — EJ. 

6 



Introductory 

like circular hole, four and a half feet in diameter and 
about six feet deeper than the bottom of the mere. This 
hole was marked out by a circle of stout alder stakes, 
and separated from the larger ring by the remains of a 
flint-and-marl wall. In this hole were the remains of 
a rude ladder, and in and around it were also found 
bones of the Celtic ox {Bos longifrons) and antlers of 
the red deer, most of the former having been broken, 
evidently for the purpose of extracting the marrows, 
while many of the latter had been sawn from the skulls. 
No metal implements or weapons were discovered, but 
flint disks such as are known to antiquaries as "sling- 
stones " were found in large numbers ; a fact which 
seems to prove that the tenants of this curious lake- 
dwelling were people of the Stone Age. Five years 
after the discovery of these prehistoric relics, another 
mere, the Great Mere at Wretham, was drained, and a 
number of oak posts, " shaped and pointed by human 
art," were found standing erect but entirely buried in 
the mud. 

The Iceni, the conquerors of the Stone Age people, 
were a tall, muscular, broad-headed race, who fought 
with bronze weapons and were probably mentally as well 
as physically superior to the Iberians. It was one of 
their kings, Prasutagus, who when he died in the first 
century of the Christian era, bequeathed half his kingdom 
to the Romans and the other half to his wife Boadicea, 
in the hope that this equal division would result in the 
latter being allowed to enjoy undisputed dominion over 
her lands. But the Romans failed to respect the dead 
king's wishes, seized the whole of his country and ill- 
treated the widowed queen. This led to revolt and war, 
but in the end the Britons were defeated and their lands 
ravaged by Roman legions. Of the Roman occupation 
of Eastern England there are many relics in Norfolk, 
for the camps and forts erected to keep the vanquished 
inhabitants in subjection, the roads made, and the banks 

7 



Norfolk 

built to keep out the sea, were so constructed as almost 
to defy the ravages of time. At Caistor, Tasburgh, 
Brancastcr, Castle Acre, and elsewhere in the county, the 
work of the Romans may still be studied ; and in 
Norwich Museum are some of the most interesting Roman 
relics in England, most of which were found in Norfolk. 

Subsequent to the departure of the Romans, England 
was invaded by certain tribes of Germanic origin, who, 
for convenience sake, have been described as Saxons. 
After a lapse of many years they divided the country 
into eight kingdoms, one of which comprised Norfolk, 
Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and perhaps a portion of Essex, 
and was known as the kingdom of the East Angles. 
Some of its kings held their courts in Norfolk, Norwich 
being the chief seat of Anna, and Thetford that of 
Edmund the Martyr. They soon had to contend against 
invasions of the Danes, who eventually gained possession 
of the whole of East Anglia, and whose settlement in 
Norfolk is not only referred to by ancient chroniclers, but 
indicated by the names of several hamlets. 

After the Conqueror was firmly seated on the English 
throne, one of his followers, Ralph de Guader, was 
created Earl of Norfolk, but lost the favour of the king 
through treasonable acts. He was succeeded by Hugh 
Bigod, the first representative in England of a family 
whose name was for a long time closely associated 
with Norfolk, where castles and priories owing their 
erection and foundation to the Bigods are still to be 
seen. In the reign of William Rufus, however, one Roger 
Bigod took up arms against the king, and, as a con- 
sequence of his disloyalty, Norfolk became the scene of 
several conflicts and was frequently devastated. Civil dis- 
cord was a feature of the reigns of the Norman kings, and 
in the times of Henry I. and John the inhabitants of Nor- 
folk were seldom allowed to enjoy absolute peace. Later, 
the county was overrun by French invaders under Louis ; 
and in the days of Richard H. the disaffection aroused by 
8 



Introductory 

Wat Tyler spread into Norfolk and led to much fighting 
and loss of life. Of the Kett Rebellion which broke 
out in the reign of Edward VI., some account will be 
found in the description of the city of Norwich,- outside 
which a great battle was fought between the rebels and the 
troops of the Earl of Warwick. Norfolk took an active 
part in the civil wars of Charles I., Norwich, Yarmouth, 
and other towns being garrisoned by Parliamentary forces. 

During these unsettled times, and in the wars waged 
abroad by the kings and queens of England, many Norfolk 
men distinguished themselves, and scarcely a battle was 
fought, either on land or sea, in which some Norfolk man 
did not gain renown. The Norfolk families of Fastolff, 
Paston, Wodehouse, De Vaux, and De Warrenne played 
a prominent part in the earlier conflicts ; and since their day, 
the names of many Norfolk men and women have become 
famous. A county which has produced such heroes as 
Lord Nelson and Sir Cloudesley Shovel, such a statesman 
as Sir Robert Walpole, such philanthropists as Sir Thomas 
Powell Buxton and Elizabeth Fry, such artists as Crome 
and Cotman — to say nothing of living men and women — 
may well be proud of her sons and daughters. 



Every visitor is impressed by the number of churches the 
county contains. Norwich alone boasts of over fifty ; there 
are several high spots in the rural districts from which as 
many as a score may be seen ; while from one coast-line 
height no less than forty are visible. But it is not only 
their number that surprises : their stateliness and architec- 
tural beauty also excite admiration. Some of the village 
churches are of almost cathedral proportions, and their lofty 
towers are landmarks for miles around. In many cases 
their size and grandeur indicate that the villages in which 
they stand once enjoyed great prosperity ; and, indeed, 
some of them, such as those at Worstead, Castle Rising, 
and Cley, were the churches of important and prosperous 

9 



Norfolk 

towns. Others owe their imposing proportions and lavish 
endowments to the Hberality of individuals or old county 
families, who delighted to extend, improve, and beautify 
their village shrines. Norman work is much in evidence in 
Norfolk churches, and in some of them are traces of even 
more ancient architecture. As to the country seats of 
Norfolk, few counties can show as many fine old halls, 
mansions, and moated granges. Houghton Hall, which 
Sir Robert Walpole built ; Blickling Hall, which replaces 
the old home in which Anne Boleyn spent her childhood ; 
Holkham Hall, where " Coke of Norfolk " made a wilder- 
ness " blossom as the rose " ; Kimberley Hall, the home of 
the Wodehouses ; and Sandringham Hall, where kings, 
queens, and princes are yearly guests, are among the stateliest 
homes of England. 



Norfolk is a convenient county for tourists, who, in con- 
sequence of its admirable railway system and other means of 
travel, such as coaches, brakes, and river steamers, are able 
to visit a fair number of places of interest during even a 
brief stay here. Hardly any of the castles, abbeys, and fine 
churches for which the county is famous are far from some 
railway station ; and in the few instances where they are in 
out-of-the-way localities, means of conveyance are seldom 
diflScult to obtain. By the cyclist — and now-a-days it is 
the cyclist who knows best the general aspect of rural 
England — Norfolk has long been considered the ideal 
county for a holiday tour. Its roads are, for the most 
part, level, and in excellent condition ; indeed, cyclists who 
are familiar with Eastern England say that, without being 
acquainted with the precise boundaries of its counties, they 
can tell on the darkest nights when they cross the Suffolk 
border and enter Norfolk, and this because of the difference 
in condition of their respective highways. Norfolk has 
always been noted for its good roads. Ogilby, in his 
Ittnerarium Angl'ia., writing of a journey through the county, 
lO 



Introductory 

says : " The way was for the most part hard and gravelly, 
the lanes being here and there a little washy, but not in- 
commoding the traveller." He was especially delighted 
with the road from Lynn to Norwich and on to Yarmouth, 
which he describes as "everywhere good, much open and 
healthy." Charles II., when in 167 1 he visited Norfolk, 
remarked that the county " ought to be cut out into strips 
to make roads for the rest of the kingdom." Perhaps the 
excellence of the roads has had something to do with the 
survival of carriers' vans in considerable numbers in Nor- 
folk. In spite of increased facilities of travel there are 
probably more carriers in Norfolk to-day than in any other 
county in England. As to the rivers, for centuries they 
have been means of communication between the coast and 
several of the inland towns ; and now they are navigated, 
not only by the picturesque wherries which are characteristic 
of them, but by such fleets of pleasure craft as no other 
English river — unless it is the Thames — can show. In 
the Broadland alone are two hundred miles of navig- 
able waterway. 



If anyone is desirous of knowing the kind of life Norfolk 
country folk lived until a few years ago, and, in some 
districts, are living to-day, he cannot do better than turn 
to the pages of Dr Jessopp's "Arcady." Probably, if he 
has had any experience of the county, he will not agree 
with the author of that delightful book when he suggests 
that notable changes have robbed its country life of its 
romantic interest ; but a perusal of his pages will help 
him to understand and appreciate the Norfolk country- 
man. Taken as a whole, the farm hands, of whom 
the greater portion of the rural population consists, are 
good-natured folk, markedly lethargic, but generally willing 
to put themselves to a great deal of trouble on behalf 
of strangers. Some of them, in whom traces of Norse 
descent are still evident, are sturdy handsome fellows, whose 

II 



Norfolk 

massive frames, fair hair, and clear blue eyes make them 
look like vikings. Near the coast this type is especially 
in evidence ; and the readiness with which not only fisher- 
men and beachmen, but farm labourers and cattle tenders 
respond to calls for the lifeboat, proves that the danger- 
defying spirit of the old sea-rovers is far from being extinct 
among them. To the various Broadland types special at- 
tention is drawn in the chapters dealing with the Broads. 

I have said that it is difficult to agree with all Dr Jessopp 
has written concerning the change which has come about 
of late years in the nature of Norfolk scenery and 
rural life. For instance, in a paragraph which is well 
worth reproducing, even if it does not faithfully represent 
the existing state of things, he says : — " The small fields 
that used to be so picturesque and so wasteful — where one 
could botanize with so much interest and pick up all sorts 
of odd pieces of information — have gone or are rapidly 
going ; the tall hedges, the high banks, the scrub or the 
bottoms where a fox or a weasel might hope to find a 
night's lodging ; the bye-lanes where the gipsies' tents 
used to pitch, where one could learn Rommany words, 
and, if we were very liberal and very wary, even listen 
to a Rommany's song and the scraping of his fiddle — 
all these things have vanished — *been done away with, 
sir ' — . . . the broad tilths are clean as gardens, and 
the face of the land looks up at you with a shiney^ luxurious 
self-complacency, suggesting rather a smirk than a smile." 

Now, this seems to me a rather deceptive picture of the 
general aspect of rural Norfolk to-day, and suggests that 
Dr Jessopp judged the whole county from some district 
where a " new broom " landlord had carried out alterations 
in a somewliat merciless fashion, playing havoc with old- 
established rural institutions. Even though some of the 
smaller fields have been " thrown together " to make large 
ones, you may still botanize as profitably in Norfolk as ever, 
and with a likelihood of discovering not a few rare and 
interesting "aliens" which Dr Jessopp could never have 

12 



Introductory 

hoped to find in his "small fields." Then there are 
plenty of weasels in Norfolk if anyone wants them ; and 
only recently I sat by a camp fire on a Norfolk heath 
and heard a genuine gipsy crone " rokker Rommany " with 
a fluency as impressive as her physiognomy. The Greys, 
Coopers, Smiths — the Griengres, Wardo-engres, and 
Petulengres of Borrow's day — are still represented in 
the county ; and though they are not so numerous as they 
once were, mainly in consequence of intermarriage with 
the once despised kairengres (house-dwellers), the tourist 
seldom travels far without meeting with some of them. 
In spite of extensive enclosures, Norfolk still has its wild 
heathlands, where the peewits cry mournfully and the 
thick-knees whistle on summer nights ; otters still dive 
for bream in its rivers ; stoats still play havoc with the 
eggs and young of birds which nest in the alder copses ; 
and if the bittern and bustard are gone from its fens and 
warrens, there are herons on its marshes and wild fowl on 
its shores. 

No one can deny, however, that a welcome change has 
taken place in the pastimes of rural Norfolk. At the 
beginning of the present century a rough and rowdy game 
called "camping" was very much in vogue.^ It took 
the form of a kind of football match between teams re- 
presenting different villages, districts, or counties. There 
were practically no rules to prevent rough, and what would 
now be called " foul," play ; free fights were a common 
accompaniment of the game, which was often attended with 
fatal results. There are men still living who can remember 
the last of these camping matches, and they speak of them 
as having been riotous and terrible encounters. Wrestling 
of a kind that would astonish a present-day pugilist was 
often indulged in on general holidays and at the hiring 
fairs, and found keen supporters among the bucolic squires. 
Cock-fighting was a favourite pastime with sporting 

1 See the account of villagers' former rough games, in " Hamp- 
shire " (Guides to the English Counties). — Ed. 



Norfolk 

farmers and others, and badger - baiting attracted large 
crowds to the backyards of the least reputable inns. 
Now-a-days the farm hands who seek recreation find ex- 
citement enough in quoits ; and the football matches which 
have taken the place of the old-time "campings" are 
conducted under English Association rules. 

• ••.*• 

During the last few months it has been my pleasing ex- 
perience to renew acquaintance with many parts of Norfolk 
I had not visited for some time, and to see not a few 
places in the county of which my knowledge had hitherto 
come through books or by hearsay. In the course of my 
journeyings I have done my best to put myself in the position 
•of a total stranger to Norfolk, and to imagine what impres- 
sion its towns, villages, and rural scenery would have upon 
one who had seen most of the notable centres and famous 
beauty-spots of our country. At times, when travelling 
through districts wholly given up to cultivation, I have had 
misgivings, and have asked myself how anyone familiar with 
Devonshire lanes, Hampshire highlands, and the hills of 
Wales, could possibly find pleasure in an unbroken succession 
of corn-fields ; but almost invariably something has appeared 
which banished my doubts and made me not only content 
with but proud of my homeland. Perhaps it has been only 
a thatch-roofed farmstead, with its eaves brooding over 
a garden of fragrant, old-fashioned flowers, and a few corn- 
ricks beside it, overhung by storm-scarred elms ; yet it has 
seemed to me that the traveller's day would not be wholly 
without profit and pleasure to him if, in the course of his 
rambles, he came upon just such a farmstead. Or it may 
have been that some isolated hamlet was suddenly discovered, 
and in it a church containing some memorial associating 
the place with a great historical event or world-famous 
personage ; and again I have found consolation. So, at the 
end of my journeyings, when I can look back upon them as 
a whole, I am assured that there is scarcely a district or 
hamlet in Norfolk that has not something in it to delight or 



Introductory 

interest the tourist who can appreciate pastoral scenery and 
has his share of the blessed gift of imagination. And when 
I remember that there are not only pleasant pastures and 
rich corn-fields, but purple heathlands, breezy cliffs, bird- 
haunted woods, the Broadland, and a wealth of historical 
and ecclesiastical buildings and relics, in Norfolk, I am not 
simply proud of my county, but anxious that everyone 
should know what a fine county it is and hasten to become 
acquainted with it. 



IS 



ITINERARY THE FIRST 

''THE CITT OF CHURCHES'* 

NORWICH 

History of the City — Rett's Rebellion — Macaulay's Description 
of Norwich — The Cathedral — The Erpingham Gate — St. 
Andrew's Hall — The City's Churches — The Castle — The 
Museum — View from the Castle Battlements — Norwich Mar- 
ket — Mousehold Heath — Lavengro and Jasper Petulengro — 
Sir Thomas Browne — Evelyn's Visit to Sir Thomas Browne — 
Other Norwich Worthies — The " Maid's Head." 

" A FINE old city . . . view it from whatever side you 
will. . . . There it spreads from north to south, with its 
venerable houses, its numerous gardens, its thrice twelve 
churches, its mighty mound, which, if tradition speaks true, 
was raised by human hands to serve as the grave heap 
of an old heathen king, who sits deep within it, with his 
sword in his hand, and his gold and silver treasures about 
him. There is a grey old castle on the top of that mighty 
mound ; and yonder, rising three hundred feet above the 
soil, from among those noble forest trees, behold that old 
Norman masterwork, that cloud-encircled cathedral spire, 
around which a garrulous army of rooks and choughs con- 
tinually wheel their flight. Now, who can wonder that the 
children of that fine old city are proud of her, and offer up 
prayers for her prosperity ? " Thus wrote more than fifty 
years ago an East Anglian enthusiast, and few people who 
have seen Norwich will complain of his excessive patriotism. 
Norwich is a city of which not only its own inhabitants, but 
those of its county and country, may well be proud. The 
" City of Churches," as it has been called, ranks high among 
England's important provincial centres, few of which can com- 
pete with it in beauty, picturesque surroundings, architectural 
i6 



a 



T'he City of Churches " 



and antiquarian interest, and the production of eminent and 
famous men. It is, and always has been, a worthy centre of 
a notable county. From a time of which our records are 
half historical and half legendary it has taken a leading part 
in the affairs of Eastern England, and it still holds its own 
among the chief towns of the kingdom. 

Passing over the assumption, which, however, is not 
without justification, that Norwich had its origin in the 
erection of an Ancient British stronghold, there is good 
reason for believing that UfFa, the first king of the East 
Angles, built, in 575 a.d., a castle somewhere on the site 
on which the city now stands, and made it his centre of 
government. Later kings had their courts here, but in the 
reign of Alfred the Great the place was ceded to the Danes. 
After varying fortunes, being held sometimes by the Danes 
and at other times by the Angles, and after being plundered 
and burnt by Sweyn, it was rebuilt by Canute. From this 
time it rapidly increased in size and importance, until in 
1086 it contained 1360 burgesses. After the Norman 
Conquest the Earldom of the city was bestowed upon Ralph 
de Guader, who, however, was found conspiring against the 
Conqueror and compelled to flee to Normandy. The 
castle was then given to Roger Bigod, who appears to have 
lived here peaceably during the reign of William Rufus, and 
to have gained the favour of Henry I. by espousing his 
cause against that of his brother Robert. In 1 122 Henry I. 
visited Norwich, and granted its citizens a charter conferring 
upon them like privileges to those enjoyed by the citizens 
of London. In the days of Stephen the castle was in the 
hands of Hugh Bigod, who in 1163 was appointed sole 
governor of the city. In the reign of John, Louis, the 
Dauphin of France, who had been granted the kingdom by 
the Pope, ravaged Norfolk and Suffolk and gained possession 
of the city and castle. 

From this time until the middle of the i6th century 
nothing occurred in connection with Norwich that need be 
recorded here ; but in the reign of Edward VI. a serious 

B 17 



Norfolk 

rebellion broke out in Norfolk, organised by two brothers, 
Robert and William Kett of Wymondham, whose 
grievance was that the people were, by the system of 
enclosure, being robbed of their rights of commonage on 
waste lands and open pastures. The rebels, some 20,000 
in number, encamped on Mousehold Heath, a wide 
expanse of heathland near Norwich, where Robert Kett, 
the elder brother, set up a so-called court of justice under 
a tree known as the Oak of Reformation. For months 
this ill-regulated congregation defied the authorities, and 
pillaged the surrounding country. At length they broke 
into the city and made several of the civic fathers prisoners. 
The citizens appealed for help to the king's Council, and 
a body of troops under the Marquis of Northampton was 
despatched to Norwich. This force was completely routed 
by the rebels, who then looted and burnt different parts of 
the city. Finally a large army, raised for service in 
Scotland, and commanded by the Earl of Warwick, was 
sent into Norfolk, and arrived under the city walls. The 
gates were soon forced, and after a stubborn fight the Ketts 
and their followers retreated to Dussyn's Dale, on Mouse- 
hold. Here a big battle was fought, and resulted in the 
total defeat of the insurgents, over 3000 of whom were 
slain. The Ketts were both captured ; Robert, who had 
fled early in the fight, being found hiding in a barn. He 
was hanged from a gibbet, erected on the top of the castle, 
until he starved to death, his brother meeting with a similar 
fate at Wymondham. About 300 of the ringleaders in the 
rebellion were also executed. 

With the exception of the granting of new charters, 
several visitations of the plague, and the arrival in the 
city of many of the Dutch refugees who had been driven 
from their country by the Duke of Alva, no very stirring 
events occurred in Norwich before the Civil War of 
Charles T. The city was then held by the Parliament 
troops, who are accused of robbing and doing considerable 
damage to the bishop's palace and cathedral. 
18 



" The City of Churches " 

Macaulay has given us a picture of Norwich as it appeared 
during the latter half of the seventeenth century. It was 
" the capital of a large and fruitful province. It was the 
residence of a Bishop and a Chapter. It was the chief 
seat of the chief manufacture of the realm. Some men 
distinguished by learning and science had recently dwelt 
there ; and no place in the kingdom, except the capital 
and the universities, had more attractions for the curious. 
The library, the museum, the aviary, and the botanical 
garden of Sir Thomas Browne, were thought by Fellows 
of the Royal Society well worthy of a long pilgrimage. 
Norwich had also a court in miniature. In the heart of 
the city stood an old palace of the Dukes of Norfolk, said 
to be the largest town house in the kingdom out of London. 
In this mansion, to which were annexed a tennis court, a 
bowling green, and a wilderness, stretching along the banks 
of the Wensum, the noble family of Howard frequently 
resided, and kept a state resembling that of petty sovereigns. 
Drink was served to the guests in goblets of pure gold. 
The very tongs and shovels were of silver. Pictures by 
Italian masters adorned the walls. The cabinets were 
filled with a fine collection of gems purchased by that Earl 
of Arundel whose marbles are now among the ornaments 
of Oxford. Here, in the year 167 1, Charles and his 
court were sumptuously entertained. Here, too, all comers 
were annually welcomed from Christmas to Twelfth 
Night. Ale flowed in oceans for the populace. Three 
coaches, one of which had been built at a cost of five 
hundred pounds to contain fourteen persons, were sent 
every afternoon round the city to bring ladies to the 
festivities, and the dances were always followed by a 
luxurious banquet. When the Duke of Norfolk came to 
Norwich he was greeted like a king returning to his capital. 
The bells of the Cathedral and of St Peter Mancroft were 
rung ; the guns of the castle were fired ; and the Mayor 
and aldermen waited on their illustrious fellow-citizen 
with complimentary addresses. In the year 1693 the 

'9 



Norfolk 

population of Norwich was found, by actual enumeration, 
to be between twenty-eight and twenty-nine thousand 

souls." 

Everyone entering Norwich is at once impressed by the 
sight of its two chief buildings, the Cathedral and Castle. 
The former, a splendid example of the Anglo-Norman 
style of architecture, occupies a position which does not do 
it justice. It stands on low ground, and the best views of 
it are obtained from the surrounding hills. It is difficult to 
realize, unless you stand immediately beside it, that its spire 
is, with the exception of that of Salisbury, the highest in 
the kingdom, being 3 1 5 feet in height. It was up the 
outside of this spire that, on July 29th, 1798, a sailor lad 
named Roberts climbed by means of the crockets and 
amused himself by twirling the weathercock. 

The founder of the Cathedral was Herbert de Lozinga, 
who, in 1 09 1, came over from Normandy, purchased the 
bishopric of Thetford, and removed the see to Norwich. 
He erected the presbytery, apsidal chapels, transept, choir, 
and the lower part of the tower. His successor Eborard 
added the nave and its two side aisles. About the year 
1250 a Lady-chapel was built at the east end, but of this 
two arches are all that remain. In 1271 the tower was 
struck by lightning ; and in the following year the cathedral 
was considerably damaged in a conflict between the monks 
and citizens, the latter of whom had to pay the cost of the 
damage. It was reconsecrated in 1278, in the presence of 
Edward I. and his Queen. - During the last years of the 
thirteenth century a spire was added to the tower; but it 
was blown down about sixty years later, when Bishop Percy 
erected the one now standing, and the beautiful clerestory 
of the presbytery. The cloisters, which were one hundred 
and thirty-three years in building, were completed in 1430, 
and are considered — at least by Norwich folk — as fine as 
those at Gloucester. The roof of the nave was built by 
Bishop Lyhart in 1450. His successor. Bishop Goldwell, 
constructed the vaulting of the choir, and added the flying 
20 




NORWICH CATHEDRAL 



" The City of Churches " 

buttresses to the exterior. The stone roofs of the north 
and south transepts were erected at the beginning of the 
fifteenth century. 

The Cathedral suffered a good deal during the Reformation, 
when the people of Yarmouth, who wanted a workhouse, 
petitioned the Lord Protector that "that great useless pile, 
the Cathedral, might be pulled down, and the stones given 
them to build a workhouse." Although the petition was 
not granted. Bishop Hall had occasion to write: — "It is 
tragical to relate the furious sacrilege committed under the 
authority of Lindsey, Tofts the sheriff, and Greenwood ; 
what clattering of glasses, what beating down of walls, what 
tearing down of monuments, what pulling down of seats, 
and wresting out of irons and brass from the windows and 
graves ; what defacing of arms, what demolishing of stone- 
work that had not any representation in the world, but the 
cost of the founder and skill of the mason ; what piping on 
the destroyed organ pipes. Vestments, both copes and sur- 
plices, together with the leaden cross, which had been newly 
sawn down from over the green yard pulpit, and the singing 
books and service books, were carried to the fire in the public 
market-place ; a lewd wretch walking before the train in 
his cope trailing in the dirt, with a service book in his 
hand, imitating in an impious scorn the tune, and usurping 
the words of the Litany. The ordnance being discharged 
on the guild day, the Cathedral was filled with musketeers, 
drinking and tobacconing as freely as if it had turned ale- 
house." After the Restoration the Cathedral was repaired, 
and since then it has several times been restored and im- 
proved. 

The west front, which represents the termination of the 
nave and aisles, and contains in its central division the fine 
entrance doorway, dates from the reign of Henry VL The 
best near view of the Cathedral, however, is obtained from 
the south-west corner of the cloisters. The tower is Norman 
in four stages, and has decorated battlements and crocketted 
pinnacles. The octangular spire is closely crocketted at the 

21 



Norfolk 

angles, and supported by pinnacled buttresses. As for the 
interior, the roof of the nave, which shows some very 
elaborate carving, has been pronounced by Cockerel, the 
Royal Academician, "the most beautiful in its structure, 
order, tracery, and sculpture in England." On the south 
side of the nave is the tomb of Chancellor Spencer and the 
chantry of Bishop Nikke or Nix, who was imprisoned for 
siding with the Pope against Henry VIII. The choir 
and presbytery, the most ancient portion of the Cathedral, 
is entered through a screen erected in I472. The ante- 
choir, a space between the screen and the choir, was formerly 
used as a chapel, and dedicated to " Our Lady of Pity." 
Under the seats of the stalls are some curious and grotesque 
Misereres. In a small chapel on the south side is the tomb 
of Bishop Goldwell. That of Sir William Boleyn, the 
grandfather of Queen Elizabeth, is between the two last 
piers of the south side of the presbytery. In the middle 
of the chancel is the tomb of Herbert de Lozinga, erected 
in 1682 to replace the one destroyed during the Civil Wars. 
The presbytery also contains the tomb of Sir Thomas 
Erpingham. At the junction of the choir and transept 
hang the colours of the West Norfolk Regiment of Foot 
— that regiment which, on board the Sarah SanHs, in mid- 
Atlantic, fought the flames and saved from total destruction 
a half-consumed ship. There is a monument, too, in the 
south transept, to the memory of the officers and men of 
the 9th East Norfolk Regiment who fell in the Afghan 
and Sikh campaigns. 

Opposite the west front is the Erpingham Gate, a fine 
example of peculiarly East Anglian perpendicular flint- 
work, erected by Sir Thomas Erpingham between 1411 
and 1 420. Its builder was the worthy knight who fought 
at Agincourt, concerning whom Shakespeare puts into the 
mouth of King Henry V. the words — 

" Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham : 
A good soft pillow for that good white head 
Were better than the churlish turf of France." 
22 



" The City of Churches " 

And Sir Thomas replies — 

" Not so, my liege ; this lodging likes me better, 
Since I may say, 'Now lie I like a king.'" 

A kneeling statue of the good old knight occupies a 
niche in the pediment of the gateway. The Ethelbert or 
Court Gate stands at the south end of the upper close. 
It was built in 1272. In St Martin's Plain is the Palace 
or St Martin's Gate, erected about 1430 ; and on the north 
side of the Cathedral is the bishop's palace, built in 
1 3 1 8 by Bishop Totington, and added to and ornamented 
by several succeeding prelates. Close beside it is a chapel 
erected by Bishop Salmon in the 14th century, and which 
was used in the 17 th century by the Walloon refugees. A 
priory, dating from the beginning of the 12th century, 
formerly stood on the south side of the Cathedral, and about 
ninety years ago some remains of it — still to be seen — were 
discovered during the demolition of an old building. The 
Grammar School, which was at one time a chapel and 
afterwards a charnel-house, stands in the close opposite a 
statue of Lord Nelson, who was a scholar here. 

While in the neighbourhood of the Cathedral you will do 
well to visit St Andrew's Hall, which stands a little way 
west of the " Norman masterwork." It was originally the 
nave of the conventual church of a monastery of Black 
Friars, and is one of the finest examples of perpendicular 
architecture. St Andrew's Hall was rebuilt by Sir 
Thomas Erpingham in the 1 5th century, and at the time 
of the suppression of the monasteries was purchased by the 
city authorities, who wished *'to make the church a fair 
and large hall for the mayor and his brethren, with all the 
citizens, to repair unto at a common assembly." Many dis- 
tinguished guests have been entertained in this fine old hall, 
among them Queen Elizabeth and Charles II. Its walls 
are covered with pictures by several famous artists, including 
a portrait of Nelson by Sir William Beechy and works by 
Gainsborough, Opie, and Herkomer. The Triennial 

23 



Norfolk 

Musical Festivals which have been held in Norwich since 
1824 are conducted here, and have brought to the city 
some of the world's greatest singers and musicians. 

Norwich may well be called the " City of Churches," 
for, in addition to its cathedral, it possesses some fifty 
churches and the remains of several more. Some of them 
are of no great note, but others are fine and interesting 
buildings. Of the latter, St Peter Mancroft, which adjoins 
the market-place, is the largest and finest. It is a cruciform 
church with a magnificent tower containing a splendid and 
famous peal of twelve bells. A better example of the 
perpendicular style of building would be hard to find in 
Norfolk, though the county has many fine churches. 
Norwich is exceedingly proud of it, and some old 
buildings which concealed much of its beauty have 
recently been pulled down. Among its mural monu- 
ments is one to Sir Thomas Browne, the author of 
Religio Medici ; and another to Sir Peter Read, who, 
according to an inscription here, not only worthily served 
" his prince and country, but also the Emperor Charles the 
Fifth, both at his conquest of Barbary and his siege of 
Tunis," and received from the Emperor the Order of 
Barbary. St Ethelred's, in King Street, has a fine Norman 
doorway, and is one of the oldest churches in the city. 
Some of its monuments and brasses were originally in St 
Peter Southgate, which was pulled down in 1887. Artists 
often make a pilgrimage to St George Colegate, which con- 
tains a monument to " Old Crome," the founder of the 
Norwich School of Artists. The monument takes the form 
of a mural tablet with a profile bust in bas-relief, and bears 
the inscription, " Near this spot lie the remains of one of 
England's greatest landscape painters, born in this city, 
December 21st, 1769, and died in this parish, April 22nd, 
182 1." St Michael-at-Coslany is noted for its chapel of 
the reign of Henry VII., said to be the finest example of flint 
and stone panelled work in England. The altar piece of 
this church is by Heins, and represents the Resurrection and 
24 



u 



The City of Churches ^^ 



the four Evangelists ; the black and ^white marble with 
which the floor is paved was brought from the domestic 
chapel of the Pastons' old home at Oxnead. St Andrew's, 
in Broad Street, is a fine perpendicular structure with a 
clerestoried nave, but has nothing in it of very great interest. 
St Stephen's, Rampant Horse Street, however, contains 
some good brasses, monuments, and stained windows. St 
Giles', in St Giles' Street, to the west of the market- 
place, is of old foundation, but its Norman work was all 
destroyed when the church was rebuilt in the reign of 
Richard I. Still it is one of the most striking churches 
in the city. 

Local historians say that the church of St Lawrence, 
which has a lofty tower and fine interior, stands on a spot 
where herrings were landed when an arm of the sea ex- 
tended as far inland as Norwich. A good deal of anti- 
quarian interest attaches to St Gregory's, where the altar 
is raised considerably above the level of the church in 
consequence of a passage beneath it, and where there are 
some remains of an old painted screen. Norman work 
is again in evidence at St Michael-at-Thorn ; and at St 
Julian's, in King Street, where the south doorway is 
worth special attention. The round tower of this last- 
named church, and that of St Mary Coslany, date from 
before ^ the Conquest, and although sometimes called 
" Danish " towers, are probably Saxon structures. The 
Hospital Church of St Helen, in Bishopgate Street, 
which was founded by Bishop Suffield in 1250, is partly 
fitted up with wards for the pensioners of a hospital of 
ancient foundation. One of the wards, which is open 
to the roof of the choir, is known as the Eagle Ward, 
the choir roof being adorned with carved eagles. Some 
other Norwich churches are of old foundation, but have 
been wholly or partly rebuilt. A " City of Churches," 
indeed, and of fine churches, too ! There is interest 
enough associated with them to last an antiquary a life- 
time. 

25 



Norfolk 

Next to the Cathedral, Norwich contains no more 
interesting building than its castle. At the risk, of 
proving wearisome to readers whose inclinations are not 
towards antiquities and historical associations, I must 
give a brief account of its history. In the first place, 
it must be understood that only a portion of the imposing 
structure now containing the Museum is the Castle — that 
is the great Norman keep. The rest of the building, 
enclosed within the massive granite walls, was erected in 
1824 as a county prison, and served as such until the 
erection of a new prison on Mousehold. As long ago 
as 575 A.D., a fortified post is believed to have stood on 
the site of the present castle. Its erection is credited to 
UfFa, who then reigned over the East Angles ; but 
whether he was responsible for the heaping-up of the 
great mound on which the Castle stands is unknown. 
That the mound is artificial there is no doubt, for when, 
some hundred years ago, a well was sunk from the base- 
ment of the keep, a pathway was discovered which must 
have crossed the spot it now covers. The first stone 
castle was built by William Fitz-Osbern, a follower of 
the Conqueror, who was instructed to keep in check the 
vanquished people of the North. Little or nothing of 
this building now remains; but the existing keep is the 
castle erected by Earl Hugh Bigod, probably in the reign 
of Stephen. In it the Earl set himself up as an indepen- 
dent ruler, but he was compelled to surrender it to Henry 
II. In 1 1 74, he again seized it and held it for some 
time; but in 1217, King Louis of France obtained 
possession and held it against King John. It subse- 
quently came into the latter's hands and was used as a 
Royal prison. In 1345 it became the county gaol, and 
continued as such until 1884, when, with the additional 
buildings erected in 1824, it was purchased by the 
Corporation and converted into a Museum. Of the old 
keep the features which attract most attention are the 
portion called Bigod's Tower, access to which was 
26 



cc 



The City of Churches " 



formerly obtained by an external staircase ; the remains 
of the dungeons with their prisoners' scrawlings on the 
walls ; a fine Norman doorway ; and an ancient recess 
which has been called a chapel. 

The Museum has no superior outside London. From 
the time of its origin, some sixty years ago, the chief object 
of its committee has been "the concentration of the 
peculiar local natural productions of the district." In 
this they have been quite successful ; and through the 
generosity of private individuals the Museum has also 
become possessed of an abundance of objects of interest 
and some very valuable collections. To appreciate this 
you need only glance at the excellent " Official Guide,"i 
compiled by Mr Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S., an active 
and ardent naturalist, and one of the vice-presidents of the 
Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society. One of its 
greatest treasures, and, as Mr Southwell says, "the gem 
of the collection " of British Birds, is a specimen of 
the Great Auk or Gare-fowl, presented to the Museum 
in 1873 with the Lombe Collection, consisting of 540 
specimens and 289 species of British birds. This 
collection also includes a Savi's Warbler, a bird which 
formerly bred in Norfolk, but which is believed to be 
no longer a visitor ; and a Red-footed Falcon, one 
of three killed at Horning in 1830, which were the 
first recorded British specimens. In the centre of the 
room containing this collection is an unrivalled group of 
indigenous Great Bustards, consisting of seven local 
specimens, one of which is believed to be the last of 
the native British race of these birds. As may be ima- 
gined, the Museum contains a considerable number of 
rare British birds, Norfolk being the most bird-favoured 
county in England. It can also boast of a unique 
collection of Raptorial birds, the result of the determina- 
tion of the late Mr J. H. Gurney to acquire specimens 

1 "The Official Guide to the Norwich Castle Museum." Messrs 
Jarrold & Sons, Norwich and London. 

27 



Norfolk 

of as many as possible of the birds of prey. That ardent 
ornithologist recognised about 470 species, and of these 
succeeded in obtaining over 400, all of which he pre- 
sented to the Museum. 

The Picture Gallery contains some 420 paintings, draw- 
ings, and etchings, some of them by well-known artists, 
and many of them the work of members of the Norwich 
School of Artists, which had for its leaders John Sell 
Cotman and " Old Crome." John Crome, or " Old 
Crome," as he is generally known, to distinguish him from 
his two artist sons, was not until recently well represented, 
his best work being in other public and private collections. 
Under the will of the late Mr J. J. Colman, however, the 
Museum became possessed of several of his works, including 
" Yarmouth Jetty,'* " Bruges River," and " Back of the 
New Mills, Norwich." John Sell Cotman is represented 
by " A Mishap," " Fishing Boats off Yarmouth," " Old 
Houses at Gorleston," " The Baggage Waggon " (all under 
the Colman Bequest), and one or two other pictures. In 
addition to these there are works by J. M. W. Turner, R. A., 
J. W. Oakes, A.R.A., John Berney Crome, Henry Lad- 
brooke, James Stark, Joseph Stannard, and others. 

The geological section is particularly interesting, owing 
to its important collection of East Anglian fossils, including 
a remarkable series yielded by the Norfolk Forest Bed, 
and mainly collected by the late Mr John Gunn. The 
" Fitch Collection," a valuable antiquarian collection, con- 
tains innumerable relics of the days of Palaeolithic and 
Neolithic man, and the age of Bronze, as well as a fine 
variety of Roman antiquities, including a bronze bust of 
Geta, a Roman mirror, a figure of Bacchus, and a terra- 
cotta relief of the head of Diana, all found at Caistor 
Camp, about three miles from Norwich. Curios ancient 
and modern, from all parts of the world, are to be seen in 
the old keep, among them some horrible instruments of 
torture, a gibbet iron from East Bradenham, and a shovel 
board originally in the possession of the Paston family. 
28 



cc 



The City of Churches 



You must not leave the Castle without enjoying the 
grand view from the battlements. From this elevated 
position you get a good idea of the general plan of the 
city which lies at your feet, and of the charming scenery 
which stretches for miles around. The Cathedral, with 
its graceful and lofty spire, naturally first takes the eye. 




but on all sides rise the towers of churches great and 
small, some standing out boldly and clearly, others half 
concealed by the surrounding buildings. Beyond the 
Cathedral is the famous Mousehold Heath, where Kett 
and his followers made their camp and fought the Earl 
of Warwick ; in another direction are wooded slopes 
leading down to the peaceful valley of the Yare. All the 

29 



Norfolk 

principal buildings in the city are seen from this point, 
and should you be in Norwich on a Saturday it will be 
worth your while to climb to the battlements and look 
down upon the busy market-place lying almost directly 
under the Castle walls. 

The market is held on what is called the Castle Hill. 
One needs the genius of a Hardy to describe the scene 
to be witnessed here on Saturday, when from all parts 
of the county and from the neighbouring counties, farmers, 
breeders, dealers, and drovers flock in, and the great pens 
are packed with cattle. The country folk come in by 
road and rail, on foot, on horseback, in dogcarts, waggons, 
tumbrils, and carriers' vans. The old inns and inn-yards 
around the hill are full of life, extra ostlers are employed, 
and the pigeons, which, during the rest of the week, feed 
undisturbed on the corn scattered among the cobble-stones, 
are driven to seek refuge on the roofs. As mid-day ap- 
proaches all sorts of conveyances draw up around the hill. 
Two or three old-fashioned farmers, with some of their 
women-folk, arrive in ancient low-wheeled phaetons, to 
alight from which they have to descend barely a foot to 
the ground. Gentlemen farmers favour dashing dog-carts, 
drawn by high-stepping hackneys ; dealers drive square, 
heavy carts in which they often bring pigs or a calf. 
Occasionally a bucolic blade, with an eye to an effective 
appearance, comes up in a " sulky." AH day long you 
hear the cracking of whips, the lowing of cattle, the 
bleating of sheep, the neighing of horses, the squeaHng of 
pigs, the barking of dogs, and the shouts of dealers and 
drovers. All Norfolk comes, at some time or another, 
to the Castle Hill. As the city is the recognised county 
capital, so is its Castle Hill the centre of the county's 
rural interests. Some of the romance of old English 
country life still lingers here, and .reminds you of the 
days, after all not so very long gone by, when young 
Borrow used to resort to the Hill, and, wondering, saw 
the men, and especially the old men, take off their hats 

30 



(C 



The City of Churches " 



to an old one-eyed stallion, which proved to be the cele- 
brated fast-trotter " Marshland Shales.'^ In those days 
it was a thing to boast of that you had seen this wonderful 
creature, which on August 3rd, 18 10, "trotted seventeen 
miles in 56 minutes, carrying 1 2 st. 2 lbs., and was after- 
wards sold by auction for ^305." Here, too. Borrow 
met many of his Romany friends, whom he accompanied 
to their camps on Mousehold, after seeing them display 
that marvellous horsemanship for which they were re- 
nowned. 

I have more than once had occasion to refer to Mouse- 
hold, and, as a pleasant change after rambling through old 
churches and listening to the deafening clamour of the cattle 
mart, you may wish to visit and explore the wild tract of 
heathland which for centuries has been a favourite resort 
of the Norwich citizens. From the neighbourhood of the 
Cathedral the Heath can soon be reached by crossing the 
old Bishop's Bridge (which dates from 1295), and climbing 
the steep roadway which leads past the Cavalry Barracks. 
With the exception of that part which the Corporation has 
planted with young trees and rhododendrons, this breezy 
expanse is left in its primitive wild state, though I 
cannot admit, as Dr Knapp would have me, that it is 
" resonant with the cries and wing-flappings of tioisome 
birds." True, under certain aspects it has, like Egdon 
Heath, " a lonely face, suggesting tragic possibilities," but 
on a bright summer day, such as I should choose for a visit, 
it is a delightful spot, conducive to good spirits and love of 
life. It is a Norfolk Exmoor, with little tors and vales, 
which are full of colour even at the end of September. 
In spring its hillocks and hollows are ablaze with 
gorse and broom ; at mid-summer the Maltese crosses of 
the tormentil, the white and yellow bedstraws, and the pink 
bells of the cross-leaved heath, nestle amid the waving bents ; 
and in autumn the slopes are purple with ling and fine-leaved 
heath, amid which the flaring ragworts and graceful 
St John's- wort give here and there a dash of gold. 

31 



Norfolk 

There are bramble thickets, too, in which the birds build, 
and on which the whinchats utter those queer notes which 
might have been learned from the primitive flint-knappers. 
Such places are subject to little change save that which the 
succession of seasons brings, and Household has altered little 
since Crome painted the picture of it now in the National 
Gallery, and is probably little different to what it was 
when the scene of Kett's encampment. It may have been 
partially wooded at one time, for we know that Kett held 
his court under one of its oaks ; but the trees have long ago 
disappeared, and you will scarcely regret them, for you will 
not look for trees on a heath. As you brush your way 
through the bracken, listen to the songs of the larks and 
linnets, and breathe the fresh upland air, it is impossible not 
to think of that strange dialogue which took place here 
between Lavengro and Jasper Petulengro, the Romany 
griengro, 

" Life is sweet, brother." 

** Do you think so ? " 

" Think so ! — There's night and day, brother, both sweet 
things ; sun, moon, and stars, brother, all sweet things ; 
there's likewise the wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, 
brother ; who would wish to die ? " 

" I would wish to die — ." 

" You talk like a gorgio, which is the same as talking 
like a fool — were you a Romany Chal you would talk 
wiser. Wish to die, indeed! — A Romany Chal would 
wish to live for ever ! " 

"In sickness, Jasper ? " 

'* There's the sun and stars, brother." 

" In blindness, Jasper ? " 

" There's the wind on the heath, brother ; if I could 
only feel that, I would gladly live for ever." 

Although there were no gipsies encamped on Mousehold 
when last I saw it, and no traces of their camp fires, 
there were signs that either the hot weather or mischievous 
boys had been responsible for a recent heath fire. The 

32 * 



iC 



The City of Churches^^ 



former seemed to me the more likely cause when I read 
the notice posted up here and there by the Chief Constable, 
which said that " Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously 
set fire to any furze, gorse, heath, fern, turf, peat, wood, or 




GUILDHALL, NORWICH 

bark, or any Steer of Wood or Bark, shall be guilty of 
Felony," and liable to " Penal Servitude for Life 1 " 

Refreshed with a breath of country air, you may return 
to the market-place and look, in its north«west corner, for 
the Guildhall, an ancient flint and freestone structure, erected 
in the 1 5th century and partly rebuilt in the next. It 
was originally a small thatched building where the market 
tolls were collected. Among its portraits of famous Nor- 

c 33 



Norfolk 

folk people is one of "Old Crome." The object of 
greatest interest, however, is the sword of the Spanish 
Admiral Don Xavier Francisco Winthuysen, who was 
defeated at the battle of St Vincent. It was presented to 
the city by Lord, then Sir Horatio, Nelson, and a letter 
which accompanied the gift is still preserved. 

I cannot conclude my notes on Norwich without referring 
to some of those whose names will be for ever associated 
with the grand old city. Among them none has attained 
greater fame than Sir Thomas Browne, who lived in a house 
which stood in the Haymarket. He was not born in the 
city, nor was he of Norfolk parentage, his family having, 
for a long time before his birth in London, resided in 
Cheshire ; but he settled here in 1637, being then in his 
thirty-second year, and remained here for the rest of his 
life. Probably Sir Thomas Browne had previously com- 
pleted his Religio Medici, but it was not published until 1642. 
He married a Norfolk lady, Dorothy Mileham, who bore 
him eleven children. During his life here he got together 
a large library and devoted much time to the study of 
languages, natural history, and antiquities. Evelyn, who 
visited him at Norwich soon after he was knighted, tells us : 
" Next morning I went to see Sir Thomas Browne, with 
whom I had corresponded by letter, though I had never 
seen him before, his whole house and garden being a para- 
dise and cabinet of rarities, and that of the best collection, 
especially medals, books, plants, and natural things. Among 
other curiosities, Sir Thomas had a collection of all the eggs 
of all the foule and birds he could procure ; that country, 
especially the promontory of Norfolck, being frequented, as 
he said, by several kinds which seldom or never go further 
into the land, as cranes, storks, eagles, and a variety of 
water-foule. He led me to see all the remarkable places of 
this ancient citty, being one of the largest and certainly, 
after London, one of the noblest in England, for its venerable 
Cathedrall, number of stately churches, cleannesse of the 
streetes, and building of flints so exquisitely headed and 

34 



u 



The City oj Churches " 



squared, as I was much astonished at ; but he told me 
that they had lost the art of squaring the flints, in which at 
one time they so much excelled, and of which the churches, 
best houses, and walls were built." After Sir Thomas 
Browne's death a number of MSS., dealing with the 
monuments and ancient buildings of Norwich, and the birds 
and fishes of Norfolk, were found and published. He was 
buried in St Peter Mancroft, but some years ago his skull 
was removed from his tomb and is now in the Museum of 
the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. 

Sir Thomas Erpingham I have had occasion to speak of. 
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who was born in 1516 and 
beheaded on Tower Hill in 1554, had two houses at Nor- 
wich, one in Surrey Street and the other on Mousehold. 
Dr Caius, the founder of Caius College, Cambridge, was 
born here, as was also Sir John Fenn, editor of the 
famous " Paston Letters." More recently the old city has 
been the home of William Taylor, the German scholar, 
whose personal appearance and characteristics Borrow has 
described in " Lavengro " ; of John Crome, the son of a 
journeyman weaver, who found in his native county the 
subjects of his greatest pictures ; Sir James Smith, the 
founder of the Linnaean Society and author of the Flora 
Britannica ; Harriet Martineau, who " left off darning 
stockings to take to literature " ; John Sell Cotman, whose 
work is now represented in the art gallery of the Museum ; 
Joseph John Gurney of Earlham, the large-hearted Quaker 
brother of Elizabeth Fry ; and George Henry Borrow, the 
" Walking Lord of Gypsy Lore," who lived for several 
years in a little house still standing in Willow Lane. 

If space permitted I might say a good deal about the 
Norwich inns, some of which are quaint and ancient build- 
ings. The '* Maid's Head " adjoins that open space in 
front of the Cathedral Gate called Tombland. It is believed 
that as long ago as 1287 there was an inn standing on the 
site of the present one. Whether this is true or not, there 
is no doubt that there was a " Mayde's Hedde " here in 

35 



Norfolk 

1472, for John Paston, in announcing to his wife the 
approaching arrival of a friend in Norfolk, suggests that if 
" he tary at Norwich there whylys, it were best to setle hys 
horse at the Mayde's Hedde, and I shalbe content for ther 
expences." It was at the " Maid's Head " that certain 
officers of the Earl of Warwick's troops breakfasted on the 
morning of the fight with Kett's rebels on Mousehold, 
Some of the men who partook of that breakfast were dead 
before night, and were buried in St Simon's Churchyard, 
which is just opposite the inn. The church register contains 
the names of four of them, with the appended note that 
" thes 4 esquires weare slayne in the King's army on 
Mushold Heath." 



36 



NORWICH TO WYMONDHAM, THETFORD, AND BRANDON. 



ITINERARY THE SECOND 
BTWATS AND AN OLD TURNPIKE 



NORWICH TO CAISTOR CAMP, WYMONDHAM, 
AND THETFORD 

Caistor Camp — Venta Icenomm — Keswick — The Wymondham 
Turnpike — Wymondham — Its Church and Abbey — The 
Tragedy of Stanfield Hall — Kimberley Hall and the Wode- 
houses — Attleborough and Thetford. 

Someone has compared Norwich to the centre of a spider's 
web, and if you examine a Norfolk road map you will be 
struck at once with the resemblance. From Norwich the 
main roads of the county radiate in every direction, and 
the city is therefore a convenient starting-point for several 
interesting tours. So excellent are these main roads, that 
you need some special attraction to tempt you to leave them, 
their smooth level surface making driving a delight, cycling 
an untiring exercise, and even walking scarcely accompanied 
by fatigue. Yet it is often a mistake to keep to the old 
turnpikes and highways, although they lead to important 
centres and chief towns. In some districts " main road " is 
only another spelling of monotony : it too often means a 
straight level highway bordered by a wearisome succession 
of telegraph poles, and with an inn at fairly regular intervals. 
Along such routes the seeker of the interesting and 
picturesque often journeys in vain, when all the while, not far 
away, down the winding byroads and leafy lanes, there are 
charming scenes, peaceful waters mirroring waving willows, 
old thatched homesteads, shade instead of sun-glare, dew 
instead of dust, and birds' songs instead of bicycle bells. 

37 



Norfolk 

I would suggest, therefore, that when you set out to travel 
any given stretch of highway, you do not time your 
journeying by the number of miles between its beginning 
and end. You will do well to allow for pardonable lapses 
from the strict straight course ; remembering that pleasure 
is to be obtained otherwise than by speedy progression, 
and that at the end of a holiday more delight is got from 
the memory of some out-of-the-way streamlet, with banks 
bright and fragrant with wild flowers, than from the con- 
templation of a cyclometer. Bearing this in mind, you 
must not be surprised that, at the commencement of the 
first of our tours out of Norwich, you are taken into a 
little-known neighbourhood, where, although the high- 
roads are good, the by-roads are pot always all that could 
be desired. The proposed journey is from Norwich to the 
Roman Camp at Caistor St Edmunds, and on to Wymond- 
ham, Attleborough, and Thetford ; and if before he 
comes out upon the Thetford turnpike the cyclist has to 
complain of a " rough stretch " here and there, he must 
console himself with the thought that in all probability it 
is a piece of a Roman road. 

To reach Caistor (not to be confused with Caister, 
near Yarmouth, which you will see later) the best route 
is that which leaves Norwich by way of King Street, and 
branches out from Prince of Wales's Road near the Post 
Office. It is a queer old street, with quaint waterside 
inns on the left hand and traces of the old city walls 
on the right, and it takes you past the enormous factories 
of a firm of world-wide reputation — Messrs J. & J. 
Colman, the mustard makers. It emerges into Bracondale, 
where you turn into Martineau's Lane, a narrow leafy 
byway named after the noted family which formerly 
occupied Bracondale Lodge. The lane skirts the pleasant 
grounds of Bracondale Woods — the home of Mr Russell 
Colman, whose father represented Norwich in Parlia- 
ment for many years, and was one of the city's chief 
benefactors — and terminates at the old thatched Cock Inn 

38 



Byways and an Old Turnpike 

at Lakenham. Crossing the little Tas, Taas, Tase, Taes, 
or Tesse (it is so variously spelt), you are in open country. 
Like all the roads leading into Norwich, that from Caistor 
is, towards the end of the week, traversed by droves of 
cattle and sheep on their way to the Castle Hill ; and it is 
no uncommon thing to encounter here a flock of sheep 
following, instead of being driven by, a shepherd or drover. 
The Camp at Caistor, which is about three miles from 
Norwich, is a fine relic of the Roman occupation. 
Although not so impressive at first sight as Burgh Castle 
(the Roman fortress near Yarmouth), it is in good state 
of preservation, the four sides of a parallelogram being 
distinctly traceable. The camp measures 438 yards from 
east to west, and 362 from north to south, and is reckoned 
to have been capable of containing a force of 6000 men. 
In several places the masonry, which closely resembles that 
at Burgh Castle, being composed of flints and regular 
courses of bricks, is in good condition. At the western 
end, which overhangs the ancient bed of the Tas, are the 
remains of a round tower and water gate, where vessels 
were unloaded which brought supplies for the garrison. On 
the east side is a deepybjj-a, heaped with masses of detached 
masonry. The church of St Edmund stands in the south- 
east corner of the camp, and is largely built of flints and 
bricks from the ruins. The general opinion among anti- 
quaries now is that Norwich occupies the site of the Venta 
Icenorum of the Romans ; but some authorities have 
suggested that that important Icenic settlement was at 
Caistor. The late Mr Hudson Gurney, in a letter to the 
late Mr Dawson Turner, remarks that he is strongly in 
favour of the former theory, and states; — "In 1834 I 
went over the camp at Caistor, and the country adjacent, 
with Colonel Leake, who may be considered the greatest 
living authority for the sites of ancient cities and fortified 
camps, and he at once said that he was convinced that 
Norwich was the Venta Icenorum^ and the capital of the 
Iceni, and Caistor the fortified camp planted by the 

39 



Norfolk 

Romans over against it, on the other side of the estuary, 
to bridle, as was their custom, a hostile population." 
Several valuable antiquities unearthed here are in the 
Norwich Castle Museum. 

Again crossing the Tas (which must have shrunk con- 
siderably since the Roman galleys sailed its waters), and 
also the railroad and the Norwich and Ipswich turnpike, 
you are in Keswick, and catch a glimpse of its church tower 
rising from a grove of trees. Upon closer view the tower 
proves to be all that is left of the church, and upon inquiry 
you may learn that nearly three hundred years have elapsed 
since a service was held within the now vanished walls. 
Hereabouts it may be necessary to inquire your way to the 
Wymondham turnpike, for " four cross ways" are numerous, 
and not all possessed of signposts. In Norfolk, however, 
you need never hesitate to interrogate the country folk ; 
even the old women on their way to market are glad of 
an excuse to stop and chat, and, in addition to giving the 
information you require, will tell you all about themselves, 
their family history, and the rector and squire and their 
family histories. It was from such a talkative old dame 
that I learnt that within the last few years Keswick church- 
yard had been re-opened for interments. '* You see," she 
said, "the first lot have had time to get crumbly;" and 
on my apologising for stopping her, she said hastily : " Bless 
your heart, my old boss is glad of a rest ! " 

Keswick is a pretty little village of very few houses. 
Those it consists of, however, are of the better order of 
rustic dwellings, and most of them are surrounded by very 
charming gardens. Close beside them, too, are groves of 
trees, each with its tangle of underwood, amid which the 
burdocks and willow-herbs grow ten feet high. By the 
roadside you continually come across the great mullein, 
the " hig-taper " of country folklore, with its soft woolly 
leaves and dense spike of large yellow blossoms. The 
sylvan surroundings of the village are very favourable to its 
bird life, and therefore calculated to afford considerable 
40 



Byways and an Old Turnpike 

pleasure to Mr J. H. Gurney, the ornithologist, and presi- 
dent of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, who 
lives here. The people of Keswick, when they wish to go 
to church — and I have no reason for assuming that this is 
not the case every Sunday — have to journey to the neigh- 
bouring parish of Intwood, which is still blessed with a 
serviceable sanctuary. It formerly had also a fine old 
mansion, built by Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of 




the London Royal Exchange. In it Sir Thomas enter- 
tained the Earl of Warwick when he came into Norfolk to 
suppress the Kett Rebellion. 

At length, after a pleasant ramble along by-roads, you 
come out on to the Norwich and Wymondham turnpike, 
and can " follow the wires '' all the way to the latter town. 
You are still only three miles from Norwich ; but now, as 
you set out for Hethersett, every step increases the distance, 
and by the time you reach Hethersett church, which stands 
a little back from the road, you are five and a half miles 

41 



Norfolk 

from your starting-point. In June and July the roadside 
banks about here are decked with the beautiful white 
blossoms of one of our rarer Rosaceae, the burnet rose, 
which is usually most plentiful near the sea. Another 
three and a half miles brings you to Wymondham, a little 
town where at least an afternoon may be profitably spent, 
for it possesses some quaint old buildings, a fine church, 
and some interesting ruins. The adjoining hamlets, too, 
are remarkable for their ancient manor and farm-houses. 
In spite of its railway station and several good modern 
houses, Wymondham does not yet seem to fully realise 
that this is the nineteenth century, so seldom' is there any- 
thing like stir or liveliness in its narrow streets, brooded 
over here and there by projecting, high-peaked gables. 

At first sight Wymondham church seems almost of 
cathedral proportions, owing to its two towers. The east 
end tower is the older of the two, being a portion of 
a Benedictine abbey founded in 1 1 07 by William 
d'Albini, an ancestor of the Earls of Arundel. There are 
extensive ruins of the conventual church of this abbey in 
the churchyard, and other traces of the abbey in the Old 
Green Dragon Inn in Church Street. The monks of 
Wymondham appear to have been a most exemplary set, 
for at the dissolution of the monasteries very little could 
be urged against them, and the abbot was granted an annual 
allowance of £"66, 13s. 4d. Previous to this, in the reign 
of Henry I., a special grant was made to the abbey of 
" all wrecks on that part of the coast lying between Eccles, 
Happisburgh, and Tunstead, and a rent in kind of 2000 
eels annually from the village of Helgay." Pilgrims used 
to resort to the town to drink of a sacred well, the waters 
of which still bubble up near the church. The Grammar 
School was formerly a chapel dedicated to St Thomas 
a-Becket. 

As I have said, there are some fine old country seats 
around Wymondham. There are also some interesting 
moated houses. Among the latter are Stanfield, Gunvil, 
42 



Byways and an Old Turnpike 

and Burfield Halls, all of which are within easy distance 
of the town, and really form part of it. The two places 
which naturally attract most attention are Kimberley Hall, 
the seat of the Earl of Kimberley, and Stanfield Hall, the 
scene of one of the most atrocious and sensational murders 
recorded in the annals of crime. But Kimberley is three 
and a half miles from Wymondham town, so before visiting 
it you will perhaps glance at Stanfield Hall, while I make 
some reference to the gruesome event which made it famous. 

In the year 1848 this Elizabethan moated mansion was 
occupied by Mr Isaac Jermy, the Recorder of Norwich. 
He had for his bailiff and tenant a well-known farmer 
named James Blomfield Rush. Ill-feeling appears to have 
existed between master and bailiff for some time, in conse- 
quence of the rescinding of certain leases, and the issuing 
of distress warrants whereby Rush was ejected from one of 
his farms. Other legal proceedings ensued, and Rush pub- 
lished a pamphlet in which he described Mr Jermy as a 
villain, and asserted that he had no right to Stanfield Hall. 
He also made a young woman, whom he had engaged 
as governess, draw up certain documents by which Mr 
Jermy, whose name was forged, entered into certain agree- 
ments beneficial to his bailiff-tenant. The murders after- 
wards committed were for some time premeditated, for Rush, 
in addition to going out late at night under the pretence of 
watching for poachers, gave instructions that straw should 
be laid down on the footpath between his house, Potash 
Farm, and Stanfield Hall, evidently with the idea of pre- 
venting his footprints being traced. Also, before the night 
of the murders he sent away from his house everyone except 
Emily Sandford, the governess, and a lad named Savory. 
On the evening of November 28th, 1848, after having tea, 
he disguised himself in widow's weeds, armed himself with 
a double-barrelled gun, and left his home. 

Shortly after eight o'clock that night, Mr Jermy was 
alone in the dining-room, his son and daughter-in-law, who 
lived with him, having retired to the drawing-room for a 

43 



Norfolk 

game of cards. After dinner it was the Recorder's custom 
to' look out of the hall door or take a short stroll in front 
of the house. Rush, who no doubt was aware of this, 
concealed himself near the door, and when Mr Jermy 
appeared in the porch fired at him and shot him through 
the heart. The murderer then ran to a side door, pushed 
his way past the butler, and arrived in the staircase hall just 
as Mr Jermy, junior, who had heard the report of the gun, 
appeared in the hall. At him Rush also fired, and he fell 
dead at his feet. Mrs Jermy, who had remained in the 
drawing-room until she heard the second explosion, then 
entered the hall, where she saw the dead body of her hus- 
band. Her screams for help brought Eliza Chastney, one 
of the servants, on the scene, and together they saw Rush 
emerge from the dining-room and point a gun at them. He 
fired twice, wounding Mrs Jermy in the arm and the servant 
in the leg, and then fled from the house by a side door. 
Meanwhile a stableman, who believed the house to be 
attacked by a band of robbers, had swum the moat, obtained 
a horse at a neighbouring farm, and ridden to spread the 
alarm at Wymondham. The butler, too, had run to another 
farm for assistance. 

After leaving the hall the murderer returned to Potash 
Farm, where, on being admitted by Emily Sandford, he 
went upstairs and took off his disguise. He then came 
downstairs and told the girl that if inquiry were made about 
him she was to say he had not been out of the house more 
than ten minutes. Later in the night, when footsteps 
were heard outside the house, he came to her bedside and 
said, "Now, you be firm and remember that I was out only 
ten minutes." She noticed that as he spoke he was trem- 
bling violently. Next day he was arrested and taken before 
the magistrates, when Emily Sandford persisted in stating 
that on the previous night he was not out of the house more 
than a quarter of an hour. At the ensuing inquest, how- 
ever, she told the truth, and related all that had passed 
between herself and the murderer. Rush's disguise was 

44 



Byways and an Old Turnpike 

found in the house, and the gun he had used was discovered 
in a rubbish-heap. The forged deeds he had compelled 
Sandford to draw up were found under the floor of a closet 
at Potash Farm. 

The trial at the assizes, which commenced on March 
29th, 1849, in the Shirehall at Norwich, was followed 
with intense interest by the whole country. The prisoner 
conducted his own defence. Mr Sergeant Byles, who pro- 
secuted, not only by calling witnesses clearly proved the 
facts already stated, but by the production of the forged 
documents showed a powerful motive for the murders. 
Several of the Stanfield Hall servants believed the prisoner 
to be the man they had seen in disguise, and Eliza Chastney, 
the injured girl, who was brought into court on a couch, 
closely attended by doctors, pointed out Rush as the 
murderer. Emily Sandford also gave evidence, and her 
statements went a long way towards confirming those of 
the witnesses from the Hall. The prisoner commenced his 
defence on the fifth day of the trial, and spoke for about 
fourteen hours. He admitted that he knew an attempt was 
to be made to obtain possession of the Hall on the night of 
the murders (an attempt had been made some years before), 
but said he had advised the parties concerned not to do so. 
Such a weak defence naturally failed to influence the jury, 
who soon returned a verdict of guilty, and the prisoner was 
sentenced to death. He was executed on the bridge in 
front of Norwich Castle on April 21st, thousands of people 
journeying from all parts of the city and county to see 
him hanged. Potash Farmhouse, where the murderer 
lived, is still to be seen in the parish of Hethel, near 
Wymondham, but its name has been changed to Hethel 
Wood Farm. 

In the middle of the sixteenth century Stanfield Hall 
was occupied by Sir John Robsart, who was twice High 
Sheriff of the county. He was the father of the un- 
fortunate Amy Robsart, whose husband, Lord Robert 
Dudley, son of the Earl of Warwick, probably first met 

45 



Norfolk 

his future wife when he was Sir John Robsart's guest 
here at the time of the Kett RebeHion. He married 
Amy Robsart in the year following the Rebellion. 

Although the village of Kimberley is rather more than 
three miles from the town, Kimberley Hall is in the 
parish of Wymondham. The Wodehouse family, into 
whose possession the estate came in the reign of Henry 
VI., and who trace their descent from the FastolfFs, is 
now represented by the Earl of Kimberley, who pre- 
serves in the hall a throne erected for Queen Elizabeth, 
who stayed here in 1578 when on her way from Norwich to 
Cambridge. The hilt of an old sword and a poniard, said 
to have been used by Sir John Wodehouse who fought 
at Agincourt, are among the family heirlooms. The 
present hall was built at the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, not far from the site of an earlier mansion, the 
demolition of which is described in some old verses quoted 
by Blomfield — 

" First fell Elizabeth's brave lodging room, 
Then the fair stately hall to ruin came ; 
Next falls the vast great chamber arch'd on high 
With golden pendants fretted sumptuously. 
Yet of four parts there still remained the seat 
Unto that heir who first was baronet, 
And to his son, till that long parliament 
Nobles and gentry brought to discontent ; 
In which sad humour he lets all the rest 
Of this fair fabric sink into its dust : 
Down falls the chapel, then the goodly tower, 
Tho' of material so firm and stower 
Time scarce could uncement them : but, sad fate, 
Now England suffers both in church and state. 
But these may God rebuild and raise again 
By the restoration of our sovereign." 

The park at Kimberley, which comprises portions of 
four parishes, is well wooded and has recently been re- 
stocked with deer. A large lake, made by the widening 
of a small river, adds much to its beauty. 

Leaving Wymondham by a south-westerly route yon 

46 



Byways and an Old Turnpike 

enter upon that part of the Norwich and Thetford road 
which is said to have been the first turnpike road con- 
structed in England, and about half-way to Attleborough 
you come upon the remains of an obelisk erected to the 
memory of Sir Edward Rich, who, in 1675, contributed 
what was then considered a large sum towards the repairing 
of Norfolk highways. A journey of a little more than five 
miles brings you to Attleborough, where there is little to 
detain you except the church, which contains two ancient 
chapels and some fine monuments and tablets of the thir- 
teenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Here, if you 
choose, you may leave the Thetford turnpike and make an 
excursion by way of Old Buckenham to Diss. Such an 
excursion, however, will scarcely be worth your while 
unless you decide to return through Kenninghall and 
Quidenham to the turnpike, when you will have the 
doubtful gratification of gazing at some mounds variously 
conjectured to mark the site of an ancient British settle- 
ment or a Roman camp, and the unquestionable pleasure 
of a glimpse of Quidenham Hall in the midst of its well- 
timbered park, and perhaps of enjoying a day's fishing in 
the lake in the park. True, there was once a palace at 
Kenninghall in which the Princess Mary lived until, on 
the death of Edward VI., she claimed the crown ; but 
nothing is now left of it except some of its ornamental 
brickwork, which may be seen in some of the houses 
of the adjoining villages. If, however, you keep to the 
turnpike, you will, after a twenty miles' journey, find 
yourself at Thetford. Save for a more or less ruined 
church here and there, or old country house of no 
unusual interest, the journey is rather a barren one from 
the tourist's point of view, and you may prefer to make 
it by rail. You will then be able to devote more time 
to the ancient town of Thetford and the wild heathlands 
around it. 



47 



ITINERARY THE THIRD 
A ROYAL TOWN AND A FLINT VILLAGE 

THETFORD, BRANDON, AND THE GREAT 
WARREN 

The Metropolis of the Heptarchy — Antiquities of Thetford — 
Castle Hill — Abbey Gate — Monastic Houses — Churches — 
Royal Residences — The Great Warren — Warren Lodge — 
Brandon — Flint-knapping — Prehistoric Relics — Grimes' 
Graves — A Flint Village — Gun-flint making — Spurious Flint 
Implements — Breckland. 

Why It should be so is hard to say ; but Thetford does 
not receive that amount of tourist patronage it deserves. 
Nor is the neighbourhood of this ancient town so well 
known as it ought to be. Places far less accessible and 
with smaller claims to attention have become popular, 
while Thetford, which was a royal city and the ecclesi- 
astical centre of East Anglia ere Norwich could boast 
of a bishop, is neglected ; and this in spite of the fact 
that the town is on the main line from London to 
Norwich and only an hour's railway journey from the 
Norfolk capital. A possible explanation is that most of 
the guide-books are made up of itineraries which com- 
mence at Norwich and terminate somewhere along the 
coast. A delightful district is thus ignored, and many 
tourists leave Norfolk without having explored one of 
the most interesting parts of the county. This is the 
more to be regretted because the neighbourhood of 
Thetford is quite different to the greater portion of 
Norfolk. Certain parts of it, it is true, are not unlike 
what is to be seen elsewhere along the borders of Fen- 
48 



I 



A Royal Toivn a?2d a Flint Village 

land ; but only around Sandringham and SwafFham, and 
even there in a less degree, are there such wild expanses 
of heathland, such wide and breezy warrens, and such 
dusky fragrant pine woods as are found around Thetford. 
One of the most attractive features of the district is, at 
least to my mind, its remoteness from the regular tourist 
routes, and the absence of any indication that its inhabitants 
are desirous of seeing it popularised. Yet, as one journeys 
through it and gets to know its delights, the conviction 
comes that it will not much longer remain neglected. 
Everything is against its retaining its primitiveness. Still, 
it will be some time before popularity spoils Thetford, and 
the building of rows of suburban houses drives the lapwings 
from its heaths and the rabbits from its warrens. 

First, turn your attention to the town. Even if you are 
unaware that the first king of the East Angles made it a 
royal city, you will, immediately upon entering it, become 
conscious of its antiquity. A first impression is that old 
buildings — inns, shops, and private houses — predominate 
over modern ones ; so numerous are they, indeed, that 
recent buildings and modern improvements seem strangely 
out of place here. What right, one is inclined to ask, has 
a plate-glass window to face an ancient house with Eliza- 
bethan gables ? and might not that fine old carved doorway 
be content with its grotesque knocker, and do without an 
electric bell ? Such questions, however, even if the mind 
frames them, usually remain unasked, for the streets of 
Thetford are a perfect maze, and all one's interrogations are 
generally directed towards finding one's way about the town. 
If it were not for the river, strangers would probably spend 
their time in flitting out of one county into another and 
back again without knowing it, for Thetford is a borderland 
town, partly in Norfolk, partly in Suffolk. When it was 
the " Metropolis of the Heptarchy " it was the centre of a 
kingdom whose limits reached far beyond the Little Ouse, 
and there was no town council to condemn its designers' 
building plans. Those designers probably made streets of 

D 49 



Norfolk 

the old Icenic trackways which led down to the river ; and 
so because some hunter long dead chose a circuitous path to 
the place where he kept his coracle moored, you to-day 
must wander about Thetford by devious ways. 

The inhabitants of Thetford are very proud of a big 
mound on the eastern side of the town, which they call the 
Castle Hill. What it is they do not know, but they are 
certain it is something very wonderful. One local historian 
suggests that it is a memorial mound similar to " the mount 
of Alyattes on the Tmolus ridge of Asia Minor, and the 
tumuli of Odin, Thor, and Freya, at Upsala." There is 
little doubt that, like the Castle Hill at Norwich, it is an 
artificial mound, and of great age. It is about lOO feet in 
height, and of considerable circumference. The ditch or 
moat which surrounds it is now dry, but may at one time have 
been connected with the Thet or some tributary of that river. 
A less puzzling relic of the past is the fine old Abbey 
Gate which stands a little to the right of the road leading 
to the town from the station. This massive gate, still in 
fairly good condition, was once the entrance to an abbey 
or priory which, like many other monastic buildings in 
Norfolk and Suffolk, owed its foundation to the warlike 
family of Bigod. For a long time this abbey was the 
burial-place of the three families which successively bore the 
title of Dukes of Norfolk — the Bigods, Mowbrays, and 
Howards. Its ruins cover a good deal of ground ; but the 
Gate is the only portion which has withstood time and 
other destructive agencies. The remains of another monas- 
tery, founded by Uvius or Urius, an Abbot of Bury in 
the reign of Canute, now form part of the buildings of the 
"Place" Farm, the conventual church being used as a 
barn. The ruins of this monastery are the oldest in the 
town. On the Suffolk side of the river, and partly contained 
in a comparatively modern residence called " The Canons," 
are the ruins of the church and other portions of the 
monastery of the Holy Sepulchre and Sacred Cross, 
founded in 1 139 by William de Warrenne. 

50 



A Royal T'own and a Flint Village 

In Thetford to-day there are only three churches used 
for worship. In the reign of Edward III. there were 
about twenty ; but of more than a dozen of these not a trace 
is left, while of the rest the remains are only fragmentary. 
In the Boys' Grammar School is the south transept arch of 
the old church of Holy Trinity, which was the cathedral 
church of the diocese as long ago as the eleventh century ; 
but apart from this the ruins are scarcely worth seeking. 
Of the existing churches the finest is that of St Mary, on 
the Suffolk side of the river. It contains a Norman font 
and a portion of the tomb of Sir Richard Fulverstone, the 
founder of the Grammar School, who was interred here in 
1566. St Peter's, at the corner of King Street, used to 
be called the Black Church, because it is built of black 
flints. St Cuthbert's, the smallest of the three churches, 
which stands near the market-place, was almost entirely 
rebuilt in 1852, and is only of interest on account of its 
fine oak screen and grotesque gargoyles. 

Thetford may well claim to be considered a royal city, for 
from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries the old King's 
House in King Street, or the building it replaced in the reign of 
Elizabeth, was a country residence of the English kings. It 
was given to Sir Philip Wodehouse by James I., and the 
arms and motto of the Wodehouse family are carved on a stone 
in the conservatory. The grounds were formerly far more 
extensive than they are now. At the south end of Well 
Street is another house supposed to have been a royal resi- 
dence. It is called the Manor House, and was the seat of 
the Earls of Warrenne, from whom it passed into the 
possession of the Crown. This is one of the oldest houses 
in the town ; but the Bell Hotel, once a famous posting- 
house, is an Elizabethan inn well worthy of a visit, and 
there is a house in White Hart Street which dates from the 
same period. The Guildhall, where the Lent Assizes for 
the county of Norfolk were held until they were removed 
to Norwich, was originally the hall of a religious guild of the 
thirteenth century. The Grammar School is chiefly notable 

51 



Norfolk 

for having had for a scholar Thomas Paine, the author of 
"Common Sense," "The Rights of Man," and "The 
Age of Reason," who was born in a house which formerly 




^^t^^//^ 



stood in White Hart Street. Many of the houses strike 
one as being considerably older than they really are, owing 
to their being built of the stones of vanished monasteries, 
halls, and churches. This helps to give the town its look 
of antiquity. 

A day may be profitably spent in exploring the straggling 

52 



A Royal Toison and a Flint Village 

streets of this quaint old Borough ; but if you tire of old 
churches, old ruins, and old houses, there are wide heaths 
and breezy uplands just outside the town, where the air is 
as invigorating as a sea breeze and wild nature calls to you 
in many voices. Such a delightful expanse is the Great 
Warren which stretches away westward towards Brandon. 
Leaving the town by the Brandon Road, you enter at once 
upon this grand tract of moorland, across which the hedge- 
less road winds like a grey ribbon through bracken, heather, 
and bugloss. Scarcely has the last house of Thetford been 
left behind before the rabbits, of which there are thousands 
here, are seen scurrying across the road and in and out of the 
fern, while on all sides the peewits rise and wheel overhead, 
crying plaintively. Gazing around you see scarcely a sign 
of human habitation ; almost the only house in sight is a 
curious one known as the Warren Lodge, which stands on 
the highest point of the Warren. Its origin is unknown. 
At a distance it somewhat resembles a low-towered church, 
but a closer inspection shows that what is apparently the 
tower is an ancient square erection something like a castle 
keep. A cottage adjoins the "keep," and is occupied by 
the keeper of the Warren. From him you may learn that 
a good many years ago the " keep " was tenanted by a 
warrener and his men, who sometimes caught as many as 
2,000 rabbits in a night by means of pitfalls ; and he will 
point out the bare old chamber in which these men slept, 
and the old wooden platters and salt-cellars they used at their 
meals. You are told, too, that the Warren was once a 
"great place" for silver-grey rabbits, many thousands of 
which were annually sent to London ; but the race is 
believed to be quite extinct here now. 

Of late years large tracts of the Great Warren have 
been planted with trees, and these have, to a certain extent, 
robbed it of wide vistas. Still it is an ideal place for a 
summer day, when the sun shines warmly on the heather, 
the breeze is laden with the fragrance of the pines, the 
rabbits are gambolling on every side, and the pretty little 

53 



Norfolk 

sand lizards are basking on the footpaths or wriggling out 
of sight among the heath and ling. And at nightfall there 
is a gloomy grandeur about this tawny heathland with its 
fretted ridges of pines. The sun sets upon it as upon a 
landscape of some dead planet. You realise then how little 
it has changed since the Stone Age ; and it is not difficult 
to arrive at such a mood that even the appearance of a 
" troglodytic Eskurian," armed with stone axe and clad 
in cloak of skins, would scarcely cause surprise. Iceni, 







Roman, Saxon, and Dane, all have been here, have lived, 
fought, and died here ; but they have left few traces of 
their presence. A flint arrow-head, a shattered urn, a few 
defaced copper coins, these are all that is left of them, and 
the ragged gorse, which grows so freely in Nature's wild 
places, blooms above their dust. Under the stars the Great 
Warren is as lonely as a mountain top, for the calling of the 
plovers and the loud whistling of the stone curlews are 
scarcely companionable sounds. 

If you venture so far as the middle of the Great Warren, 
it will be worth your while to follow the road to Brandon, 
a journey of about six miles from Thetford. You may do 
this because Brandon possesses an interest which attaches to 

54 



A Royal To'wn a?id a Flint Village 

no other town or village in the world. It is the only place 
where flint-knapping, or the manufacture of gun-flints, is 
still carried on. There is reason for believing that even in 
the days of prehistoric man this district was resorted to by 
hunters and warriors who required good flints for axes and 
arrow-heads, for the flints of this neighbourhood are noted 
for their quality, and at Weeting, in a desolate locality 
adjoining Brandon, there is a great number of circular 
excavations now recognised as the pits from which the men 
of the Neolithic Age obtained their flints. Here, too, they 
must have fashioned them, for when, in 1870, the Rev. 
Canon Greenwell made a scientific examination of what are 
locally known as Grimes' Graves, he discovered not only 
flakes and cores of flints, but a number of flint implements 
which must have been used in the making of axes and arrow 
and spear heads. After paying a visit to these ancient pits, 
which are thousands of years old, it is a strange experience to 
enter Brandon and find men still engaged in fashioning 
flints in much the same manner as the hunters of the Stone 
Age. 

Brandon, indeed, may be described as a flint village ; for 
its church and chapels are built of flints, and so are its 
cottages and their garden walls. The present-day knappers 
devote most of their time to the fashioning of ornamental 
flint-work for decorative building, but some of them, as I 
have said, still make gun-flints. That there should still be 
a demand for gun-flints is surprising ; but one of the knap- 
pers, named Field, says that of late years he has been able 
to sell large quantities of them, and he believes they are 
traded away to the native tribes of Africa. There are 
three stages in the making of a gun-flint. First, the flints 
are *' quartered," that is, the great stones are broken with 
a large hammer. They are then "flaked" or split into 
angular strips by taps of a small hammer. Lastly, the flakes 
are " knapped " or shaped with a small hammer and a kind 
of hard chisel fixed upright in a low wooden bench. Gun- 
flints are made in four sizes, for muskets, carbines, horse 

55 



Norfolk 

pistols, and small or single-barrelled pistols, and a set of 
these can easily be obtained from a Brandon knapper. 

A great many of the spurious flint implements, which 
have been accepted by antiquaries as genuine and have found 
their way into museums and private collections, were manu- 
factured at Brandon, and some of the knappers are still 
skilled hands at making them. Most of the workers, how- 
ever, possess not only flint weapons of their own manufac- 
ture, but some fine genuine ones which they have come upon 
while excavating flints. The uninstructed observer is quite 
unable to detect the false from the true, but a knapper 
has no difficulty in doing so. But it does not follow that 
he is always ready to enlighten a stranger on the subject 
of spurious flint implements. I can only assure you that 
if, while in Brandon, you wish to become possessed of an 
ancient British arrow-head you need not wait long for it ! 

The trip to Brandon is only one of several pleasant 
excursions which may be made into Breckland if you make 
Thetford your headquarters for a time. As is stated at 
the beginning of this chapter, the neighbourhood is at 
present practically an unknown country, so far as tourists 
are concerned. This I can promise you, that if you decide 
to devote a day or two to the isolated Breckland hamlets, 
the wide heaths and warrens, the meres and the churches, 
you will not regret it. There are over a hundred churches 
within a twelve-mile radius of Thetford, and some of these 
not only contain good examples of Norman workmanship, 
but are possessed of old Danish or Saxon round towers. 
Norfolk, where it is not made up of marshlands, is chiefly 
given up to cultivation ; so it is as well that you should 
pause a while in a district which presents a totally different 
aspect to what you will find general elsewhere within the 
county. 



56 




NORWICH TO YARMOUTH. 




NOF 



ITINERARY THE FOURTH 
PEGGOTTrS PORT 

GREAT YARMOUTH 

Norwich to Yarmouth — Acle — Across the Marshes — Yarmouth — 
" The Norfolk Gridiron " — England's Largest Parish Church 
— A Town won from the Waves — Beachmen and Beach Com- 
panies — A Vanishing Type — Salvage Work — A Dangerous 
Coast — Notable Wrecks — Historical Houses — Defoe's Impres- 
sions of Yarmouth. 

Only very brief reference need be made to the journey 
from Norwich to Yarmouth, as much of the country through 
which it leads is dealt with in the chapters devoted to the 
Broadland, Yarmouth, and the Norfolk coast. Indeed, it 
is doubtful if many tourists, except those who cycle, will 
follow the route now indicated, for the river trip down the 
Yare, from the Norfolk capital to Norfolk's largest port, 
is so pleasant that most people who do not travel by rail 
prefer it to the journey by road. 

To reach Yarmouth by road you leave Norwich by that 
fine thoroughfare. Prince of Wales's Road. You soon 
arrive at Thorpe Hamlet and Thorpe village, two distinct 
but adjoining places, the former of which is a " parish 
within the county of the city of Norwich." Thorpe, the 
scene of many old-time water-frolics, is a very picturesque 
place, straggling along the north bank of the Yare. Its old 
church is now in ruins, but a new one has been erected for 
the villagers and the numerous Norwich citizens who have 
here suburban homes. Between Thorpe and Acle you pass 
through portions of the parishes of Postwick, Brundall, 

57 



Norfolk 

Blofield, and Burlingham, and get some charming glimpses 
of the river valleys scenery of the Broadland. After 
leaving Brundall you lose sight of the Yare, but at Acle 
you cross the Bure by the last bridge which spans the river 
as it flows seaward into Breydon Water. Acle church, the 
greater part of which was built in the fourteenth century, is 
one of the numerous Norfolk churches roofed with thatch. 
At one time Acle was a market town ; but it has lost the 
especial privileges granted it by Richard II., and is now 
glad to cater for the many anglers who find their way here, 
and the yachting parties which visit the Broads and rivers. 

The most direct route from Acle to Yarmouth is a new 
road across the marshes. It is a rather dreary and mono- 
tonous road, but those who travel it are able to gain a good 
idea of the far-stretching Norfolk marshlands. For nearly 
nine miles it is bordered on both sides by flat lands which 
have been reclaimed from what was once a wide estuarine 
valley. They are almost featureless except for the windmills 
which pump the flood-water out of the dykes, and a few 
isolated marsh farmsteads and cattle-tenders' cottages. Here 
the wild fowl from the Breydon flats spend most of the 
hours during which the flats are covered by the flood tides ; 
herons stand sentinel by the dykesides or wing their way 
heavily to their nesting-place at Reedham ; gulls are as 
numerous as rooks ; and green plovers and redshanks cry 
mournfully as they rise from their nests amid the rushes and 
tussock grasses. In summer these and the many other birds 
which dwell in the marshes are seldom disturbed by man ; 
but when the close season is over, and their numbers are 
increased by large flocks of fowl driven southward from the 
frozen North, the flight-shooter makes his presence felt 
among them, and neither by night nor day are they safe from 
his gun. Except for the birds, you will have few companions 
as you travel this road, and will probably be glad when you 
arrive at the Yarmouth toll-gate and pay your halfpenny for 
admission into the town. 

The other route from Acle to Yarmouth is by way of 

58 



Peggottys Port 



Burgh St Margaret and St Mary, and a bridge over a 
narrow neck of Filby Broad. Burgh St Margaret and 
St Mary were formerly distinct parishes, each possessing 
a church ; now they are but one, and all that is left 
of the church of St Mary is a small portion of the tower 
in the middle of a field. When you have passed through 
Burgh and Mautby you find yourself 
in Caister, a coastline village famous 
for its ruined castle. The distance 
from Caister to Yarmouth is incon- 
siderable, and you enter the most 
popular place in East Anglia by a |^ 
road which leads you past the largest 
parish church in England. 

If you make Yarmouth the starting- ~^t(-k 
point of a ramble along the Norfolk 
coast you may not feel disposed to 
stay long in this old town, which in 
the holiday season is so thronged 
with pleasure-seekers that one longs, 
while in the midst of its crowd, for 
quiet retreats, sunny, lonesome sea- 
boards, and peaceful waterways. Yet 
the town has attained such popularity 
as a holiday and health resort that 
almost all England has, at some time 
or another, slept within its walls. Its 
places of interest and historical and 
literary associations are not a few, 
and even amid the stir of crowded 
beach and Marine Drive, the clamour of the busy market- 
place, the trafficking of High Street, and the active interests 
of quays and fish wharves, one cannot but call to mind that 
this is the town which first welcomed the Norfolk hero 
Nelson on his return from his victories ; that kings have 
stayed here in houses that are still standing ; that Sarah 
Martin, the self-sacrificing prison visitor, was born near by 

59 




^/foyv'M 



Norfolk 

and laboured for the good of the vicious and down-trodden 
in the local gaol ; and that Charles Dickens laid the scene 
of a great part of " David Copperfield " in the fishermen's 
quarters near the harbour. Dickens called Yarmouth " The 
Norfolk Gridiron," on account of the number of narrow 
lanes, locally known as " rows," which connect the wider 
thoroughfares ; but the people are not eager for the fame 
of their town to be perpetuated by this name. They 
prefer it to be known that their parish church is the largest 
in England, that their quay — about a mile in length — was 
once considered " superior to any other in Europe save that 
of Seville " ; and that for centuries Yarmouth has been an 
important centre of the North Sea herring fisheries. 

The larger Norfolk towns seem to have been ambitious to 
eclipse in some respect all other towns in the kingdom. 
Norwich boasts of possessing a larger market-place and 
greater number of churches than any other provincial town 
or city ; Yarmouth of the biggest parish church in England. 
Very few cathedrals exceed it in size, and viewed from 
whatever aspect it is fine. It is dedicated to St Nicholas, 
the fishermen's patron saint, and was founded by Herbert 
de Lozinga, who, in 1091, accompanied William Rufus 
from Normandy, and purchased the bishopric of Thetford. 
As a penance for the sin of simony he was enjoined by the 
Pope to build sundry churches and monasteries. He erected 
St Nicholas' on the site of an earlier church dedicated to 
St Bennet ; and to him Norfolk is indebted for its Cathedral 
and Priory at Norwich, its Priory Church of St Margaret 
at Lynn, and other ecclesiastical buildings. Since Bishop 
Lozinga's day St Nicholas' has been several times enlarged, 
and at one time contained no less than sixteen chapels, 
each with its altar and priest. During recent years it has 
been so restored that its interior has much the appearance of 
a new church. Some of the old Norman arches, however, 
are still to be seen, and among the objects of interest within 
its walls are the Prior's Tomb, the Fastolff Tomb, and the 
" devil's seat," made of the skull of a whale ; while the 
60 



Peggottys Port 

library contains, among other rare works, a Hebrew roll of 
the Book of Esther. A curious relic of the days when all 
sorts of mummeries were played in churches are the church 
books, which contain an account of certain payments made 
for making, working, and renovating a piece of pantomimic 
deception known as " The Miraculous Star." You find in 
it such instructive passages as these: In 1465, " paid for 
leading the star, 3d. on the twelfth day " ; in 1 506, " for 
hanging and scouring the star," and " a new balk line to 
the star, and rising the star, 8d. " ; in 1512, "for a nine 
thread line to lead the star." Charges are also included for 
the " mending of angels." About seventy years ago body- 
snatching on a considerable scale was carried on in St 
Nicholas' churchyard by a resurrectionist named Vaughan, 
who is mentioned in the biography of that distinguished 
Yarmouthian, Sir Astley Cooper. 

All towns are much alike to one who is anxious to get 
out into the fields and on to rural highways and byways ; 
but a seaport, be it ever so much connected with the fishing 
industry, is never so stifling as are the streets of some old 
inland towns ; and so, as you ramble through the narrow 
rows, descend into the dungeons of the old Tollhouse and 
Gaol (now a public library and the museum of the local 
branch of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society), 
visit the house where Louis XVIII. of France stayed, and 
the inns where Charles II. and George IV. lodged, you 
are all the while conscious of inhaling a salt-laden air, and 
that at any time you can, without going far out of your way, 
stroll down on to the sands and be refreshed by a sea breeze. 
Even an examination of what is left of the town's old 
fortifications is not enough to keep your mind in an anti- 
quarian groove, for you realise that it was against enemies 
which might come from over-sea that the stout walls and 
watch-towers were built ; and go where you will the low 
level of the land reminds you that Yarmouth has been won 
from the waves and is only held from them by a frail tenure. 
Centuries ago the waves swept over the site upon which the 

61 



Norfolk 



town now stands, and flooded Inland up the eastern 
valleys. The dwellers where Norwich now lifts its spires 
then saw Roman galleys sail up a wide estuarine waste 
of waters, the mouth of which gaped from the Roman camp 
at Burgh to that of Caister. All along the East Anglian 
coast the sea has been the maker and destroyer of towns 







~~T2)fje Quay 
ydrmoufi) 

and hamlets ; and when you remember this you are glad to 
go down to the harbour mouth and think over what it has 
done and is still doing for the old town. There, too, you 
may see the smacks come in from the North Sea trawling 
grounds, the 'longshore boats put out for a cruise among 
the surf-whitened shoals, ice-barques and steamers arrive 
from Norway, and timber ships from the Baltic. Out in 
the roadstead steam-tugs tow ships and trawlers towards 
the port, fisheries protection gunboats lie at anchor, and 
62 



Peggottys Port 

wind-bound coasters roll and dip to the undulations of the 
waves. It is impossible for the hours to weigh very heavily 
when the fishing boats are racing for the bar, and fishermen, 
clad in gleaming oilskins, and with spray-drenched faces, 
bring them up to the wharves. And even if it were, there 
are stories to be told of stormy nights and the old free- 
trading days ; and there are beachmen whose fathers " ran '* 
many a keg and bale, and who themselves have had many 
strange adventures, to tell them. 

The beachmen of Yarmouth, and of the Norfolk coast 
generally, deserve more than a passing mention, for their 
record is one of which England may well be proud. They 
are the heroes of many a hard fight against wind and wave ; 
they have done deeds which merit a more permanent 
memorial than a scanty notice in the public press. Their 
daring and hardihood have won for them a certain local 
fame ; but a reference to them does not stir men's hearts 
as it should, and there is a likelihood that in the not far 
distant future much of their brave work will be forgotten ; 
for the era of the beachmen is almost over. True, they 
still man the lifeboats, and are seldom found wanting when 
their services are needed ; but the genuine beachman is a 
vanishing type. Steam-tugs and salvage companies have 
taken out of his hands most of the work once left to him ; 
his graceful yawls and slender gigs lie rotting on the shingle. 
The old beach companies, which, by their keen rivalry, 
ensured speedy assistance to ships in distress, are almost 
extinct institutions. Here and there may be seen a tumble- 
down wooden shed or " court," adorned with defaced 
figure-heads and battered name-boards, and in it the 
members of some old company still meet on stormy 
nights ; but of late years many such buildings have dis- 
appeared. 

Anyome who is familiar with the coast-line of East 
Anglia can easily picture the scene presented in the old 
days when the burning of a flare, the soaring of a rocket, 
or the booming of a gun, announced to the beach com- 

63 



Norfolk 

panics' watchers that a ship had struck on a shoal. In a 
moment loud cries would arouse the sleepers in the beach- 
men's cottages ; lights would gleam from the windows, 
doors would be flung open, and men, putting on pilot-coats 
and oilskins as they ran, would hasten down to the shore. 
Within a hundred yards of each other the members of rival 
companies would strive with might and main to get their 
yawls afloat, and when the swift-sailing boats were beyond 
the shore surf, a strenuously contested race would ensue. 
The first man to lay hand on the endangered vessel would 
probably win for his crew and company the prize, the 
masters of ships, when in need of help, generally engaging 
the services of the first arrivals. If possible, anchors would 
be laid out and the ship got off the shoal, and when she 
was brought into port her owners would have to settle a 
heavy salvage claim ; but should she be hard aground or 
breaking up, the crew would be landed and the beachmen 
would do their best to save the cargo. Every member of a 
beach company who so much as laid a hand on a yawl as it 
left the beach was entitled to a share of the profits of a 
voyage. 

Forty years ago there were seven beach companies at 
Yarmouth, the Holkham, Standard, Young, Diamond, 
Roberts', Star, and Denny's companies. At the neigh- 
bouring port of Lowestoft there were several similar insti- 
tutions, and three of them, the Old, Young, and North 
Roads Companies, exist to-day. Writing in 1866, Mr 
J. G. Nail, author of " Chapters on the East Anglian 
Coast," says : " Of late years the competition of the steam- 
tugs has greatly interfered with the gains of the beachmen. 
They sally out of the haven and intercept the beachmen's 
prizes, and also render ships' masters more independent 
of their aid. The beachmen complain bitterly that when 
a valuable cargo is the prize, the steamers get before them ; 
but in cases of wreck, and where human lives only are at 
stake, they are suffered to risk theirs in the rescue unop- 
posed." If this could be written five-and-thirty years ago, 
64 



Peggotty s Port 

it is little wonder that the beachman's calling is now scarcely 
worth following. 

Owing to the network of sandbanks lying off Yarmouth, 
the coast has always had a bad reputation among seamen. 
Many lamentable disasters have occurred here, and almost 
every winter adds to their number. Over looo seamen 
are computed to have lost their lives here in 1692, when, 
out of 200 coasters which anchored in the roads, 140 were 
wrecked by a terrible storm. Nearly a hundred years later, 
thirty ships and 200 men were lost; and in 1801 H.M.S. 
Invincible, after striking on Hammond's Knowl, went down 
with her captain and 400 men. Six years later the gun- 
brig Snipe ran ashore at the harbour mouth, sixty-seven sailors 
perishing within a few yards of the shore. Good came, 
however, of this disaster. It set the inventive barrack- 
master. Captain G. W. Manby, to work upon the con- 
struction of an apparatus by means of which people on the 
shore might communicate with and rescue those on a 
stranded ship. His invention was brought before Parlia- 
ment in 18 14, and two years later there were about sixty 
stations of his life-saving apparatus along the coast. Cap- 
tain Manby died in Yarmouth in 1854 — not before he 
had the satisfaction of knowing that his invention had been 
the saving of over a thousand lives. 

The sea front or Marine Drive is one of the finest in 
England. There are two piers and a jetty, and delightful 
beach gardens, where military bands play every day. The 
south end of the drive opens upon the spacious South Denes, 
where are Nelson's Monument and the race-course. Among 
other places of interest are the Royal Aquarium (now a 
theatre), the Town Hall, the remains of the Grey Friars' 
Cloister, the Sailor's Home (which contains a small 
museum), and the Duke's Head and Star Hotels. Both 
the hotels date from Elizabethan times, and the latter is 
said to have been occupied by the regicide Bradshaw. It 
contains a finely panelled chamber, known as the Nelson 
room, decorated with some good carving and ceiling work. 

E 65 



Norfolk 

Over its fireplace are the arms of the Company of Merchant 
Adventurers. 

Daniel Defoe, who visited Yarmouth at the beginning 
of the eighteenth century, was quite enthusiastic when he 
came to write of its " magnificent buildings and merchants' 
houses, which look like little palaces rather than the dwelling- 
houses of private men." " The greatest defect of this beauti- 
ful town," he wrote, " seems to be that, though it is very 
rich and increasing in wealth and trade, and consequently in 
people, there is not room to enlarge the town by building, 
which would be certainly done much more than it is, but 
that the river on the land side prescribes them, except at 
the north end without the gate ; and even there the land is 
not very agreeable. But had they had a larger space within 
the gates there would before now have been many spacious 
streets of noble fine buildings erected, as we see is done 
in some other thriving towns in England." Nearly two 
hundred years have elapsed since these words were written, 
and during that time Yarmouth has conquered the difficulties 
of its awkward situation. Again Defoe says : " It is also a 
very well governed town, and I have nowhere in England 
observed the Sabbath day so exactly kept, or the breach 
so continually punished, as in this place, which I name to 
their honour. Among all these regularities it is no wonder 
if we do not find abundance of revelling, or that there is 
little encouragement to assemblies, plays, and gaming meet- 
ings ; and yet I do not see that the ladies here come behind 
any of the neighbouring counties either in beauty, breeding, 
or behaviour ; to which may be added, too, not at all to 
their disadvantage, that they generally go beyond them in 
fortunes." 

I wonder what Defoe would say if he could see Yarmouth 
to-day, with its race meetings, theatres, daily concerts in the 
open air, and the *' revelling " of thousands on its beach ! 

To my mind Yarmouth is a place to be visited in early 
spring or late autumn rather than in summer, for then the 
thousands of pleasure-seekers who throng its streets and sea 
66 



Peggottys Port 

front in the holiday season are absent, and you may better 
appreciate the breeziness of the Drive and tawny sand-dunes, 
and the continental features of the long, tree-pJanted quay. 
Then, while rambling through the beachmen's quarter, you 
may be able to reconstruct the Yarmouth that Dickens 
knew, and even gain some idea of what the town was like 
when Miles Corbet lived in that house in the market-place 
known as the "Weavers' Arms." 



67 



ITINERARY THE FIFTH 

J NIGHT ON BRETDON 

No lover of wild life should leave Norfolk without explor- 
ing Breydon Water, a wide expanse of ooze flat and tidal 
water lying inland of Yarmouth. Breydon Water — or 
Breydon, as it is generally known — is the estuary of the 
three principal Broadland rivers, the Yare, Bure, and 
Waveney. Its length from Yarmouth Haven Bridge to 
Berney Arms is about four and a half miles, and its width 
about a mile in its widest part. Seen under whatever 
aspect, it presents a striking appearance, whether its flats 
are steaming under a mid-day summer sun or its waste of 
waters is reflecting the ruddy glow of sunset. There is 
still something primeval about it, and except for the arti- 
ficial barriers which have been built to protect the marshes 
from its tides, it must present much the same aspect now as 
it did when, as a vaster estuary, it occupied the entire valley 
of the surrounding lowlands. It can have altered little since 
the days when the Iceni crept out in their coracles upon its 
waters, and the Romans, who built the massive fortress at 
its upper end, signalled across it to their camp at Caister. 

I think I cannot give a better idea of Breydon than by 
describing a visit paid to its tidal waters towards the end of 
August 1899, when I accepted an invitation from a well- 
known Norfolk naturalist, Mr A. Patterson, to spend a 
night with him in his house-boat the Moorhen. We left 
Yarmouth shortly after mid-day, starting from a character- 
istic Breydon boathouse, with its eel-spears, butt-darts, fish 
boxes, punt sails, and bobbing poles, in a typical Breydon 
punt. Visitors to the Broadland soon become familiar 
68 



A Night on Breydon 

with boats of this description, which, however, often differ 
slightly, according to the taste and fancy of the owner. Our 
boat was better constructed than most of them, having been 
specially designed to meet the requirements of a naturalist. 
Space economy was one of its special features. It was flat- 
bottomed, decked-in fore and aft, and had a roomy central 
" well." It carried a lug sail, and had a rudder instead of 
the customary sculling rowlock. 

The sea itself could scarcely have presented a wider 




-Jo^cyc/on 



outlook than did Breydon when we commenced our inland 
voyage, for the tide was at flood and all the flats were 
submerged. In a little while, however, the ebb set in, and 
one by one the flats, instead of being wholly hidden, be- 
came simply awash, so that the succulent water weed 
locally known as " widgeon grass," which grows freely 
upon them, began to fall in matted masses on the mud. 
Then we saw our first signs of wild life in the shape of 
a bunch of knots which, uttering their musical note, came 
flying towards us over the water. An Arctic tern also 
came within a few yards of us, and some ringed plovers 
settled on a " rising " flat. 

After a pleasant sail, during which we passed several 

69 



Norfolk 

stranded and rotting hulks, and the floating headquarters 
of " Ducker " Chambers, the Norfolk and Norwich 
Naturalists' Society's watcher, we arrived at the Moorhen^ 
a snug and wcll-fitted-up little house-boat in which my 
friend often lives the life of a water gipsy. She was 
moored in a creek on the north-west side of Breydon, near 
Banham's Farm, the home of a handsome, fair-haired, blue- 
eyed, marshland farmer, in whose veins is the blood of the 
Vikings. Several other house-boats were to be seen not 
far away, belonging to local gunners and fishermen. My 
friend's, however, was the only naturalist's house-boat on 
Breydon, and both in situation and convenience was 
admirably suited to his work. Behind it stretched mile 
after mile of level marshland, intersected by the winding 
waterways of the Broadland ; in front were hundreds of 
acres of ooze flats, to which the curlews were just return- 
ing, and on which the gulls were settling to feed on crabs 
and flounders. Sea asters were blooming on the shores 
of the creek, and whenever we emerged from the cabin 
we inhaled the fragrance of sea southernwood, dense masses 
of which grew all along the " walls." 

As the weather was warm we lit a fire on the side of the 
wall and boiled our kettle there. A cup of tea and a pipe 
made us supremely happy, and after a few minutes' chat 
with the Norseman, who, glad to exchange a few remarks 
with a human being, strolled down to us from his farm, we 
set out on a ramble along the walls towards Berney Arms. 
A bunch of eight common sandpipers rose from the foot of 
the wall as we neared one of the drainage windmills, and 
we counted thirty-two curlews in a flock which came over 
from the marshes. The year 1899 was a good one for 
curlews — at any rate so far as Norfolk was concerned, 
for we saw more there then than we had seen for many 
years. 

Sunset on Breydon is often a sight to be remembered, 
but that night, as we were moored on the north-west side, 
we saw the sun sink, not into the water, but beyond the 
70 



A Night on Breydon 

far-off horizon of the marshes. It kindled a glorious 
glow among the fleecy cloud-drift, and for a few too 
brief moments it seemed as though the western sky were 
afire. The suggestion of a vast conflagration was empha- 
sised by the mist which rose out of the dykes and creeks 
at sundown, and drifted like smoke across the lowlands. 
A quarter of an hour later land and water were hidden by 
a dense fog, which had a disturbing eflPect upon the fowl 
on the flats, for as we sat in the Moorhen we heard an 
almost incessant clamouring of gulls, curlews, and smaller 
shore birds. As long as the fog lasted the fowl continued 
to call, chatter, and whistle ; but there were periods of 
comparative silence, when the fog lifted for a while and 
the flats were lit up by the moonlight. Most of the gulls 
were black-headed gulls, but now and again we distinguished 
the laka-laha of a " saddle-back." After we closed our 
cabin door a heron flapped down close to the house-boat 
and at intervals shouted " Frank " across the flats. 

I was in no hurry to sleep that night, for my companion 
possesses a fund of interesting information and reminiscences, 
and has much to say about the wild life of Breydon. We 
talked together of the times, remembered by some of the 
older gunners, when the flats were often white with fowl, 
and that ardent naturalist, Mr E. T. Booth, brought from 
them some of his rarest and finest birds. There are still 
a few punt-gunners on Breydon in autumn and winter, 
but the Wild Birds Protection Acts have made it im- 
possible for them to gain a livelihood by gunning alone. 
They complain, too, that nothing like such quantities of 
fowl visit the flats as in former days ; but it must be 
borne in mind that of late years we have experienced 
several mild winters, and only comparatively small numbers 
of birds have been driven southward in search of food. 
The last time we had a severe winter Breydon and the 
Norfolk marshes were alive with wild fowl, and there is 
little reason to doubt that under like circumstances just such 
flocks will come to us again. As to the Breydon smelt- 

71 



Norfolk 

fishers, whose house-boats are moored where the Yare and 
Waveney unite and form the estuary, the decreasing depth 
of the water and the making-up of the flats has had much 
to do with rendering theirs an unprofitable occupation. An 
old broadsman whom I know can remember the time when 
the wherries could sail over what are now called Burgh 
Flats, and he tells me that these flats " made-up " four 
inches in one year. Smelting was once such a paying 
business that the fishermen ran all sorts of risks in defying 
the River Commissioners and police during the close season. 
But although smelt-fishing on Breydon has seen its best 
days, there are still several methods by which the Brey- 
d oners profit by the time they spend on their home waters. 
Eels abound in the mud of the flats, and the eel-picker is 
often at work with his spear ; butt-darting is a favourite 
sport, and trawling for butts and flounders and dredging 
for mussels are resorted to by some men desirous of earn- 
ing an honest penny. 

It is impossible to record here one half of the subjects 
discussed as we sat in the Moorhen s lamp-lit cabin and 
listened to the cries of the fowl and the lapping of the tide. 
When at length we stretched ourselves out on the cushioned 
settles to sleep, we found our minds still occupied with the 
matters upon which we had discoursed, and not a few 
amusing incidents of life on the tidal waters were recalled. 
My friend suddenly remembered how one night, while in 
his house-boat, he had tried to sleep, but found it impos- 
sible, owing to the uneasiness of his couch. After tossing 
restlessly to and fro for hours, he recollected that he had 
placed under his thin mattress two saws and a hammer ! 
I, myself, while occupying a water-bailiff's house-boat, 
had been kept awake all night by the singing of the sedge 
and reed warblers in the riverside reed beds. On another 
occasion my companion had been considerably startled by 
the violent rocking of the Moorhen^ and discovered that it 
was due to the attentions of a horse, which was amusing 
itself by rubbing against the edge of the roof. No such 
72 



A Night on Breydon 

disturbing incident occurred that night, however, though 
we were now and again aroused by the roar of a punt-gun, 
which proved that in spite of the close season extending for 
another week some gunner was already after the fowl. 

Morning dawned upon a cloudy sky and misty earth ; but 
the sunlight soon broke through the clouds, dispelled the 
mists, and the roofs of Yarmouth were seen, at first dimly 
and then distinctly, across the water. We opened our 
cabin door carefully, not knowing what strange visitors 
might be in our neighbourhood, and were rewarded by 
catching a glimpse of five sheldrakes paddling in a goose- 
like fashion near the boat, and a small flock of wild ducks 
some distance away. The flats, often so unsightly under a 
lowering sky, were transfigured by the sunlight, which here 
and there streaked them with glistening bars of greenish gold. 
The far-spreading marshlands, too, with their many wind- 
mills, isolated homesteads, innumerable cattle, and abundant 
bird life, presented a very pleasing picture, and reminded me 
of what a somewhat neglected Yarmouth historian wrote, 
some forty years ago, concerning Breydon and its sur- 
roundings. He said : " There is a peculiar charm in the 
contemplation of these wide and fertile vales, under the 
ever-changing aspects of sun and sky, with all their 
subtle gradations of light and shade. Raised above the 
river's banks, the eye takes in a landscape which has that 
true and powerful element of the sublime — wide expanse — 
above us soars a vast o'er-arching canopy, and below (is) 
the bright glancing stream, flowing through a rich champaign 
country, and as it gleams cheerily in the clear bright sunny 
air, filling the soul with an infectious gladness : anon the 
clouds are flinging down their flickering shadows as we flit 
past, now in sunshine, now in shade. . . . Here are rich 
poetical landscapes equalling aught of the great Dutch 
masters, tranquil cattle pieces worthy of Paul Potter, sunny 
Cuyps, romantic Hobbimas, gloomy Ruysdaels, moon-lit 
Vanderneers." 

After breakfast we walked across the marshes to the 

73 



Norfolk 

banks of the Buie, arriving, after an hour's easy strolling, at 
Mautby Swim, where lives Fred Smith, an intelligent mill- 
man who is also an enthusiastic sportsman and observer of 
wild life. Although still only a young man, he can boast 
of having shot no less than nine spoonbills. One of these is 
said to be the finest specimen ever procured in England ; 
and judging from an excellent photograph in Smith's posses- 
sion, I should say there are grounds for the assertion. In 
addition to a stuffed kingfisher, which unfortunately is too 
common a feature of the marshman's home, the millman 
pointed out to me a white-tailed starling and a handsome 
merlin. Among the rare birds which have fallen to him of 
late years were a broad- billed sandpiper [Limicola Platy- 
rhynca)y only about half a dozen of which species have been 
taken in England, and four of these on Breydon ; and a 
pectoral sandpiper {^Heteropygia maculata)^ an American 
species. About two months before the date of my visit he 
had seen a roller (^Coracias garrulus^ at Mautby. One of 
his especial bird friends is a winged hooded crow, which, on 
account of its injury, is unable to re-cross the North Sea, 
and has frequented the marshes in all seasons for two or 
three years. Ramblers on the marshes and voyagers on the 
Bure will do well to pay a visit to the picturesque home of 
this entertaining marshlander, if only to climb the tower of 
his windmill and view the surrounding country. There was 
formerly a wild-fowl decoy at Mautby, but it is now disused. 
Plenty of good fishing may be had in the neighbourhood, 
especially at Stracey Arms, where, in all probability, a 
railway station will soon be built. Mautby is about seven 
miles from Yarmouth and two and a half miles from Acle. 
Shortly after two o'clock we started on our homeward 
voyage, following the winding of the walls instead of crossing 
the flats. We had not gone far before we saw something 
which reminded us of a cruel and stupid practice of some of 
the summer season cruisers on these inland waters. I refer 
to the useless and unsportsmanlike shooting at gulls which, 
even if they are hit, can only be left to die on the flats. As 

74 



A Night on Breydo7i 

we glided along by the flint-faced wall a bird dragged itself 
up the stones and hid amongst the coarse sea grasses. My 
companion jumped ashore, and in a few moments returned 
with a winged black-headed gull, which he took home and 
placed in an aviary rather than leave to the mercy of the 
Breydon rats. The local gunners seldom waste their powder 
and shot upon gulls, and it is a pity that yachtsmen, who 
cannot leave their yachts and venture upon the flats to get 




the birds they shoot, do not refrain from this questionable 
sport. 

Near a couple of quaint little houseboats we encountered 
a typical Breydoner in his gun-punt. In a few days he 
would probably be prowling about in search of fowl ; and 
even though the ist September had not yet arrived, the 
long-barrelled, pistol-stock gun pointing over his boat's bow 
looked as if it might go off accidentally (! ) should a bunch of 
fowl settle on a flat. Apparently he wished us to understand 
that he was engaged in the harmless occupation of collecting 
driftwood ; but he seemed to have his eyes open for other 

75 



Norfolk 

things than stray fish boxes and floating timbers. He was 
an elderly man, and no doubt could call to mind many days 
of exciting sport, when the ftats were almost hidden by fowl, 
and the discharge of his murderous-looking gun filled the air 
with wheeling and crying birds which left a score or more 
of their kind lying dead or dying on the ooze. 

By four o'clock we were back in Yarmouth, and I was 
saying good-bye to the friend to whom I was indebted for 
such a delightful holiday. If any reader is desirous of 
spending just such another he cannot do better than com- 
municate with Mr A. Patterson, who of all the Norfolk 
naturalists knows most about Breydon, and than whom no 
one is more ready to assist and impart information to a 
kindred spirit. 



76 



ITINERARY THE SIXTH 
BT THE WILD NORTH SEA 



YARMOUTH TO CAISTER CASTLE, CROMER, CLEY, 
WELLS, AND HUNSTANTON 

The Sea's Siege of Norfolk — Caister Castle — Sir John FastoifT— 
Martham — Inroads of the Sea — The Chronicles of John of 
Oxnead — Bromholm Priory — Paston — Tombs of the Pastons 
— Sir John Paston and his Friends and Enemies — Sandhills 
and Cliffs — The Old Forest Bed — Trimingham, Overstrand, 
and Cromer — The Beauty Spot of Norfolk — The Lighthouse 
Hills — On the Cliffs at Night — The Lost Town of Shipden 
— The "Shrieking Pits" of Aylmerton — Beeston Priory — 
Gresham and Margaret Paston — Sheringham — View towards 
Blakeney Point — Salthouse Marshes — The Alighting-place of 
Migratory Birds — Rare Warblers — Cley and its Fine Church 
— Wells — Walsingham Priory — Kingly Pilgrims — Binham 
Priory — Stiffkey — A Queer People — Holkham Hall — " Coke 
of Norfolk " — The Wild Grey Geese — The Birthplace of 
Nelson — Brancaster — Hunstanton. 

All along the eastern shores of England signs of the 
erosive action of the waves are to be seen, and nowhere 
more apparent than along the Norfolk coast. This is a 
fact which no traveller making a coast-line journey from 
Yarmouth to Hunstanton or Lynn can fail to be impressed 
with. Should you follow the route I now propose to de- 
scribe, you will not only skirt stretches of seaboard where 
hamlets and churches, fields and waste lands, have been 
demolished or submerged, but you will see the sea's siege 
still going on. You will soon understand, too, how it is 
that the question of protecting the East Anglian coast against 
inroads of the sea has become a serious one. The inhabi- 

77 



Norfolk 

tants of towns and villages which have lately become widely 
known and popular health and holiday resorts cannot watch 
unmoved the wasting of their cliffs and destruction of their 
sandhills. They have too much to lose to be indifferent 
to the sea's siege ; but for the most part they are helpless, 
owing to the costliness of really effective protective measures. 

I intend, in this and the succeeding chapter, to indicate 
a route which follows the curve of the coast-line nearly the 
whole way from Yarmouth to Lynn. If you follow this 
route you will not only see Mundesley, Cromer, Sheringham, 
and Hunstanton, but Holkham Hall, Sandringham Hall, 
and some of the most interesting ruins and delightful scenery 
in Norfolk. Should you be a cyclist, you will have no 
difficulty in visiting every place I shall mention ; and even 
if you make this coast-line journey by rail you may, if you 
do not mind the frequent alightings, plan your travelling 
so as to miss few of them. Most directly, the distance 
from Yarmouth to Lynn along the coast is about ninety 
miles ; but in this tour it will be increased by occasional 
excursions into districts not strictly by the sea. 

Between Yarmouth and Caister the shore is made up of 
sandy beach and marram-grassed sandhills, so, as you will 
have ample opportunity for becoming acquainted with this 
kind of coast before you reach the Norfolk cliffs, you may 
prefer to leave Yarmouth by the Caister Road, which enters 
the town near St Nicholas church. This is a straight, level 
road, fringed with young firs and willows, and bordered on 
the one hand by the marshes of the Bure valley, and on 
the other by sand-dunes and an occasional tract of gorsey 
common land. Caister village, an enterprising little place 
which has learnt to make the most of its proximity to frolic- 
some Yarmouth, is too near that town to have retained any 
degree of rusticity. But commonplace as is its appearance, 
it is famous on account of its castle — a grand old ruin which, 
fortunately, stands a little more than a mile from the village 
street. 

Caister Castle is no Norman fortress, owing its erection 

78 



By the Wild North Sea 

to some warlike baron, but is undoubtedly one of the most 
ancient brick buildings in England. It was built between 
the years i 443 and 1453 by Sir John FastolfF, who obtained 
a license from the Crown to employ six ships in conveying 
building materials to Caister. This Sir John was a famous 
soldier in his day, for he took a leading part in the battles 
at Harfleur, Agincourt, and Verneuil, and during the siege 
of Orleans defeated the French troops in an action known 
as the Battle of Herrings, because its object was the cutting 
off of supplies. Apparently he lived in considerable state 
here, for in an inventory of his property in the " Paston 
Letters " it is shown that, in addition to gold plate, he 
possessed 13,400 ounces of silver plate, while his ban- 
quetting table was adorned with two hundred and fifty-one 
" chargeours, disshes, and platters " of silver and silver gilt. 
But he did not live long to enjoy the sight of a lavish dis- 
play suggestive of loot, for he died a few years afrer the 
castle was completed, bequeathing it to Sir John Paston, a 
member of a family whose name has become well known 
through the publication of the famous " Letters.'' Sir 
John Paston was not permitted to retain undisputed pos- 
session. Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, maintained 
that Sir John FastolfF had, during his life, given him the 
castle, "and that he would have it plainly." At the head 
of 3000 men he succeeded in taking the new stronghold, 
and held it until his death, when Sir John Paston regained 
possession. Although not occupied after the reign of 
Elizabeth, it remained, in his family until 1659, when it 
was sold to a citizen of London to whom the Pastons were 
indebted to the extent of ;^6500. 

All that is left of the castle is a lofty circular tower and 
considerable portions of the north and west walls, about 
which, when I last saw them, many pigeons were fluttering 
or nestling in the crevices. Only a few of the tower steps 
remain intact, so it is practically unclimbable. Strange to 
say, very little ivy clings to the walls, the only vegetation, 
except a few recently planted fruit trees, being wall-flowers, 

79 



Norfolk 

pellitory, dyer's rocket, and here and there an elder bush 
which has rooted itself in the brickwork. Some old iron 
guards are still fixed to one of the tower windows, near an 
open hearth with a smoke-blackened chimney. The moat, 
which is often almost dry, is overshadowed by trees and 
littered with fallen bricks and masonry. The whole ruin 
seems sadly neglected, and I never saw a place of historic 
interest so desecrated with the scrawlings of silly trippers. 
This, no doubt, is due to its nearness to Yarmouth. Like 
many other ruins, those of the castle are seen at their best 
by moonlight, which fails to show the traces of vandalism 
so conspicuous in the daytime. There is an old tradition 
that a headless horseman, who drove a coach and four 
headless horses, used to haunt the neighbourhood of 
Caister. 

About half a mile from the castle, the road from the 
village joins the high road from Yarmouth to Norwich, an 
excellent stretch of highway, which, however, may with 
advantage be abandoned for a by-road on the right 
leading to Great Ormesby. The distance is a little over a 
mile, and it is not a mile to be hurried over. There are 
pleasant cornfields and pastures on either hand, and wood- 
bine and wild roses in the hedgerows. 

Great Ormesby church should be visited, if only to 
examine its Norman doorway ; and then you may take to 
the road again, which leads you past a village green and 
forge to Little Ormesby church and the Eel's-foot Inn and 
Sportsman's Arms. The hostelries are favourite resorts of 
anglers who come to fish the local broads. Then the 
whispering of reeds and the gleaming of waters speak of 
Broadland, for you have reached Ormesby Broad. The 
scene, made up of lovely lights and shadows on the water, 
skimming swallows, quiet pastoral pictures, sallows, willows, 
and wild flowers, is a familiar one to travellers in this part 
of Norfolk. You continue your journey to Martham, a 
small town whose church of St Mary might fittingly be the 
sanctuary of a place ten times its size. Apart from its 
80 



By the Wild North Sea 

church Martham has little to claim attention. My sole 
impressions of it are of a bank which opens for three hours 
on two days a week, a green with geese, some ponds around 
which the willows grow so close together that they seem 
to be crowding each other in efforts to reach the water, 
and a local shopkeeper's harvest sale bill, which announced 
that this annual event was causing " Great Excitement in 
Martham." 

But it will not do to stray too far from the coast at 
the commencement of your tour, so you will do well to 
return to it by way of Winterton, a village gaining favour 
among people of quiet tastes owing to its splendid beach 
and secluded position. You soon find yourself in the midst 
of a district which within the last few years has experi- 
enced disastrous inroads of the sea. To the north of 
Winterton, at a place known as Horsey Gap, there is a 
weak spot in the sandhill bastions which protect the coast. 
Here the sea has several times swept in and inundated the 
adjoining lowlands. As long ago as 1287 the surrounding 
hamlets were subject to such floods and encroachments, 
for in the chronicles of John of Oxnead we read that in 
that year, " in the month of December, the seventh of the 
Kalends of January, the 8th day of the moon, the sea, 
in dense darkness, began to be agitated by the violence of 
the wind, and in its agitation to burst through its accustomed 
limits, occupying towns, fields, and other places adjacent 
to the coast, and inundating parts which no age in past times 
had recorded to have seen covered with sea-water. For, 
issuing forth about the middle of the night, it suffocated 
or drowned men and women sleeping in their beds, with 
infants in their cradles, and all kinds of cattle and fresh- 
water fishes ; and it tore up houses from their foundations 
with all they contained, and carried them away, and threw 
them into the sea with irrevocable damage. Many when 
surrounded by the waters sought a place of refuge by 
mounting into trees, but benumbed by the cold they were 
overtaken by the water and fell into it and were drowned. 

F 8l 



Norfolk 

Whereby it happened that in the town of Hyckelingge nine 
score of different ages and sizes perished in the aforesaid 
inundation." Again in 1608, according to Blomfield, a 
great breach occurred between Winterton and Waxham, 
through which the sea flowed at every flood tide, over- 
flowing many thousand acres of marsh, and seriously damag- 
ing the fresh-water fisheries even so far inland as Norwich. 
In 1 78 1 and 1791 there were repetitions of these disasters; 
but after that there were no serious breaches until November 
1897, when between Winterton and Palling, and also at 
Cley and Salthouse beyond Cromer, great damage was done 
by rough seas and unusually high tides again causing the 
coast walls to give way. At Horsey the sea swept through 
the sandhills, drowning a large number of rabbits which 
had their burrows there. A native of the district who 
saw the sea come in, said afterwards, " It was pitiful to see 
'em clamber for the higher holes and then, when the water 
came in, jump clean up a good yard or more. Then they 
struggled against the wash a minute, but were toppled over 
and swept on to death amongst the rubbage. Some went 
tumbling down the cliff front (he called the sandhills clifl^s) 
as their burrows were halved by the sea, then scrambled 
up again, to be licked off by the waves that broke upon 
them — and down with marrums, faggots, and sand they 
went into the boiling waters below." From 1 50,000 to 
200,000 tons of sea-water were subsequently pumped off 
the adjoining marshes. At Eccles, a parish of which only 
a few acres are now left, the church tower could until 
recently be seen standing forlorn on the beach, but it has 
now fallen, and is likely to be soon hidden by the sand 
or the sea. 

While in this neighbourhood you should not fail to see 
the deserted Hall at Waxham ; but the remains of the 
Austin Priory there are so few as to be scarcely worth 
a visit. In the parish of Bacton, however, which you 
reach after passing through Happisburgh, or Hasboro', 
where Cowper stayed for some time, are the ruins of 
82 



By the Wild North Sea 

Bromholm Priory, founded in 1 1 1 3 by William de 
Glanville, and famous for its Holy Rood, which pil- 
grims came from far and near to worship, and which 
was reputed to have power to cure all ills that flesh is 
heir to and cast out demons. Sir John Fenn says that 
it was *' a monastery of some celebrity. Though not, 
at least in its latter days, one of the most wealthy 
religious houses, for it fell among the smaller monas- 
teries at the first suppression in the reign of Henry 
Vni., its ruins still attest that it was by no means in- 
significant. . . . Among the numerous monasteries of 
Norfolk, none but Walsingham was more visited by 
strangers, and many of the pilgrims to Walsingham turned 
aside on their way homeward to visit the Rood of 
Bromholm. For this was a very special treasure brought 
from Constantinople . . . composed of a portion of the 
wood of the true cross." " Helpe, holy cross of Brom- 
holm," was the cry of the affrighted miller's wife of whom 
we read in Chaucer ; and Piers Plowman invokes the Rood 
of Bromholm to " bryng " hnn " out of Dette." Time 
has played havoc with Bromholm Priory, and neglect 
has resulted in dilapidations and base usage of portions 
of the old shrine ; but still you may see the great empty 
arch of the east window of the chapel, flanked by narrow 
pointed windows, something of the refectory, and the 
gatehouse with its pointed arches. 

Adjoining Bacton, and on the road to Mundesley, is 
the coast-line village of Paston, where you should not 
fail to visit the church, and examine its memorials of the 
Paston family. The most imposing of these is a fine 
monument, with a recumbent efligy, to Catherine, the 
wife of Sir Edmund Paston, who died in 1628. The 
tomb is the work of the sculptor Nathaniel Stone, whose 
diary contains this entry: — "In 1629, I made a tomb 
for my lady Paston, and sat it up at Paston, and was 
very extraordinarily entertained, and pay'd for it ^340." 
The earliest monument, however, is an altar tomb bear- 

B3 



Norfolk 



ing the date 1538 upon a brass which also informs you 
that 

" Here Eastimus Paston and Marye his wifTe 
enclosed are in claye, 
Which is the Resting place of fleache 
until the latter daye." 

Sir Edmund Paston, who died in 1632, and Clement 
Paston and Beatrice his wife, are also interred here; but 
William Paston, who was appointed justice of the Court 
of Common Pleas in 1 429, is buried in Norwich Cathedral. 
John Paston, the husband of the devoted Margaret whose 
letters are the most interesting epistles in the famous collec- 
tion, was interred within the walls of Bromholm Priory. 
He it was who had so many enemies, against whom, in 
his absence from home, his brave and faithful wife de- 
fended, as long as she could, his house at Gresham. But 
in spite of the fact that his legal duties compelled him to 
spend most of his time in London, he seems to have had 
good friends in Norfolk as well as enemies, and they and 
his wife kept him well informed of what was going on 
at home. Thus, when his houses at Hellesdon and 
Drayton were in the hands of the Earl of Suffolk, one 
of his neighbours wrote to him as follows : — " And as 
for Haylysdon, my Lord of Suffolk was ther on Wedens- 
day in Whytson Weke, and ther dined and drew a stew 
and toke gret plente of fych ; yet hath he left you a pyke 
or ij, agayn ye come, the wych wold be gret comford to 
all your frendes, and dyscomford to your enmys ; for at 
hys beyng ther that day ther was never no man that played 
Herrod in Corpus Crysty ^ play better and more agreable 
to hys pageaunt than he did. But ye shale understond 
that it was after none, and the weder hot, and he so feble 
for sekeness that hys legges wold not here hyme, but ther 
was ij men had gret payn to kepe hym on hys fete ; and 
ther ye were juged. Som sayd * Sley ' ; som sayd * Put 
hym in preson ! ' And forth com my lord, and he wold 
1 A reference to the acting of Mysteries at Whitsuntide. 

84 



By the Wild North Sea 

met you with a spere, and have none other mendes for the 
troble at ye have put hym to but your hart blod, and that 
will he gayt with hys owen handes ; for and ye have 
Haylesdon and Dreton, ye schall have hys lyfF with it." ^ 

The old home of the Pastons has entirely disappeared 
from the village which bears their name ; but you may still 
see a big Elizabethan barn here, which was built by Sir 
William Paston. 

By the time you arrive at this point of your coast-line 
journey, you begin to lose sight of the sandhills, with their 
ragged marram-grown ridges and scanty floral crop of sea 
holly, restharrow, and sea bindweed. From Happisburgh 
to a spot some distance west of Sheringham the coast in 
most places lifts up above the sea a sheer face of cliff, often 
to a considerable height. These clifl^s are of great interest 
to the geologist, for they contain the so-called Forest Bed. 
It extends nearly sixty miles along the coast, but is especi- 
ally conspicuous at Bacton, Happisburgh, and Cromer, 
while out at sea it is often met with at considerable depths 
by the East Coast trawlers, who bring to light many of its 
fossil bones. These include remains of the mastodon, 
several elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, beavers, oxen, 
and several kinds of deer, specimens of which are in Nor- 
wich Castle Museum. 

Almost at the commencement of this clifF-line you enter 
upon a stretch of coast which of late years has seen such 
changes that its elderly inhabitants may well wonder if they 
are dreaming or witnessing some phantasmal transformation 
scene. Until a comparatively recent date it was practically 
an unknown land, so far as the tourist and pleasure-seeker 
were concerned ; now it is famous. All England has heard 
of Trimingham, Overstrand, Cromer, and Sheringham. 
There is something in the scenery around these delightful 
places that makes a lasting impression. One cannot forget 

1 Extract from a letter from J. Whetley to Sir John Paston, 
written on May 20th, 1478, and appearing in the '< Paston 
Letters." 

8s 



Norfolk 

the wave-fretted cliffs which show so bold a front to the 
sea, the ruined shrines which, lonesome and storm-beaten, 
are landmarks to the mariner, the quiet hamlets backed by 
sunny fields and pastures and lovely woodlands. It is not 
difficult to foretell the future of Cromer and the villages 
which surround it. There is such a future in store for 
them as Yarmouth, Lowestoft, and many of the popular 
places on the East Coast can never hope to enjoy. To- 
gether they make up the *' beauty spot " of Norfolk. The 
very naming of them suggests *' dreams of delight " — 
Felbrigg Woods, the Lighthouse Hills, Overstrand and 
Sheringham ChfFs, Runton, Roughton, and Gunton — they 
bring to mind the play of light and shade on the cliiF-top, 
the wind-blown runnels of sand which trickle down to the 
beach, the crooning of wood-doves, the waving of bright 
seaweeds in the rock pools, the piping of shore birds, and 
the ceaseless song of the sea. Even the summer birds 
seem to sing and the summer flowers to bloom later here 
than elsewhere along the coast ; while as for the sea, the 
Mediterranean can scarcely show a deeper, lovelier blue. 
You are indeed in the "beauty spot" of Norfolk, and it 
is difficult to tell of a tithe of its charms. I might write 
of Mundesley, with its splendid beach and crumbling cliffs ; 
of Overstrand, with its leafy byways and ruined church, 
containing the simple tomb of Sir Thomas Powell Buxton, 
the abolitionist of slavery ; of Cromer, with its hills and 
vales, quiet shady lanes, grand church, and famous golf 
links ; of Trimingham, where the cliffs are 300 feet high, 
and from whose Beacon Hill nearly forty churches can be 
seen ; of Beeston and its Priory ; of the Skelding Hills 
and Sheringham's bird-haunted woods and breezy uplands. 
I might write in detail of all these, but so much would still 
remain untold that I should despair of being able to do 
anything like justice to them. It is all so enchanting ; it is 
a bit of Devon and Cornwall transplanted to the shores of 
the North Sea, only it is Devon and Cornwall without the 
relaxing air of the south. The sea breezes are of the most 
86 



By the Wild North Sea 

bracing kind — there is no land between Cromer and the 
North Polar regions, and the winds are often fresh with the 
keenness of the ice-fields. People who regularly go to the 
coast say that even if one is dying it is impossible to feel ill 
here. And it is astonishing how good homely country fare 
tastes when it is eaten at one of the coast-line farmsteads. 
If you wish to appreciate the charms of Cromer and its 
surroundings, and to get a good view of them, you cannot 




C^:^'^r 



(%omfir 



choose a better vantage ground than the Lighthouse Hills. 
You may stay there all day and not tire of the prospect 
before you. There is colour enough in it — in the house- 
roofs and cornfields, sea and shore — to satisfy everyone. 
Existence here becomes idealised, presents boundless possi- 
bilities ; there is nothing to limit the imagination ; the vista 
of life is as wide as the sky. The cries of the sea birds and 
humming of the bees are in harmony with the voices of 
wind and wave. From dawn till sunset you are content to 
lie amid the wild mignonette and silvery sea buckthorn, and 
watch the flying clouds and their shadows on land and sea. 

87 



Norfolk 

And even when night falls, and the sky is filled with stars, 
it is with slow steps that you leave the Lighthouse Hills ; 
for it is then you are reminded of what Hardy has written 
of such a wind-swept height : " To persons standing alone 
on a hill during a clear midnight . . . the roll of the world 
eastward is almost a palpable movement. The sensation 
may be caused by the panoramic glide of the stars past 
earthly objects, which is perceptible in a few minutes of 
stillness, or by the better outlook upon space that a hill 
affords, or by the wind, or by the solitude ; but whatever 
be its origin, the impression of riding along is vivid and 
abiding. The poetry of motion is a phrase much in use, and 
to enjoy the epic form of that gratification it is necessary to 
stand on a hill at a small hour of the night, and, having 
first expanded with a sense of difference from the mass of 
civilised mankind, who are horizontal and disregardful of all 
such proceedings at this time, long and quietly watch your 
stately progress through the stars. After such a nocturnal 
reconnoitre among these astral clusters, aloft from the cus- 
tomary haunts of thought and vision, some men may feel 
raised to a capability for eternity at once." 

At Cromer, again, you have striking evidence of the effect 
of the sea's siege of the Norfolk coast, for the old town of 
Shipden, mentioned in Doomsday Book, and once a royal 
demesne, occupying a position seaward of the present town, 
has wholly disappeared. Local fishermen affirm that at low 
water portions of its old church of St Peter, which went 
down-cliff in the fourteenth century, may be seen, with other 
traces of the vanished town. Apart from these questionable 
relics, however, the district possesses several objects of his- 
torical and antiquarian interest. On Toll's Hill, said to 
have been a smugglers' signalling station, are the remains of 
an old beacon, similar to that which, before the erection of 
a more modern structure, stood on the Lighthouse Hills. 
At Aylmerton, a hamlet about three miles from Cromer, is 
a tract of high heathland, noted for its numerous hollows, 
pronounced to have been the dwellings of some primitive 
88 



By the Wild North Sea 

inhabitants of the district. They are known as the " Shriek- 
ing Pits/' owing to a tradition that loud shrieking is some- 
times heard from them, and that a white figure peers into them 
and wrings its hands in an agonised manner. Mr A. D. 
Bayne, in his "History of Eastern England," says: "The 
northern part of Norfolk appears to have been densely 
peopled by the Iceni, as indicated by the burrows, pits, 
and remains of dwellings and pits near Cromer. There is 
the site of a large British village, consisting of remains of 
several thousand inhabitants. It begins at Felbrigg and 
runs up to Beeston. It is divided across the middle by a 
bank, the base of which is from twelve to twenty feet in 
width. At each end of this encampment are two large 
burial grounds where have been found quantities of pottery. 
At Weybourne there are above a thousand pits, supposed to 
have been Icenic dwellings or hiding-places." 

Between Cromer and Sheringham are the ruins of 
Beeston Priory, founded in the reign of King John by 
Lady Isabel de Cressey. These ruins, which are not far 
from the village church, are very picturesque, though only 
the west end of the conventual church, a small belfry 
tower, and a portion of the chapter-house are now to be 
seen. The church, when intact, was a large cruciform 
structure, but without aisles. The village church has been 
recently restored ; but a piece of the screen which, at the 
time of restoration, was placed behind the communion 
table, interests ecclesiologists, as do the corbels which 
carried the rood-loft, the clerk's seat, and one or two old 
brasses. At Gresham, a village live miles from Cromer, 
and of which a son of Chaucer once held the living, are 
the foundations of the house in which Margaret Paston 
and a few servants kept at bay for some time a thousand 
of Lord Molynes' rabble retainers, who, on January 28th, 
1 450, besieged it, armed with " cuirasses and brigandines, 
with guns, bows, and defensive armour." To gain posses- 
sion of a place almost entirely unprotected, they also em- 
ployed " mining instruments, long poles with hooks, called 

89 



Norfolk 

cromes, used for pulling down houses, ladders, pickaxes, 
and pans with fire burning in them." Needless to say, in 
the end they succeeded in breaking into the house. 

Before losing sight of Cromer, as you continue your 
journey towards Sheringham, it is interesting to make note 
of the words of an old guide writer, who, in 1819, said: 
" Cromer was first frequented as a watering-place about the 
year 1785, by two or three families of retired habits, whose 
report of the beautifully diversified scenery of the neigh- 
bourhood, of the simple manners of the inhabitants, and 
the excellent beach at low water, made others desirous of 
sharing in this rural enjoyment." He also remarks that 
" Fish are scarce at Cromer, except lobsters, which are 
good but small, and sold at 8d. or 9d. a pound ; when 
dear, they are called * hanged ' lobsters." 

Sheringham, which the author just quoted did not 
consider worthy of mention, promises to become a rival 
to Cromer, and even now there are not a few people who 
prefer it to the better-known place. From the west cliffs 
of Sheringham you get a grand view of the coast as far 
as Blakeney Point. The height of the cliffs gradually 
decreases in that direction, until they give way entirely to 
the Salthouse Marshes, a somewhat dreary district often 
visited by the gunner and ornithologist on account of its 
being a favourite haunt of waders and other birds. The 
marshes, which are protected on the seaward side by a long 
pebble ridge, are wide, treeless, and almost featureless. 
At the time when the sea last broke through the ridge they 
lay for a long time *' sea-soaked and water-logged." In a 
recent article in a weekly paper reference is made to the 
favour shown these marshes by the smaller land birds in the 
migration season. " It is then," says the writer, " that the 
' blue-throats,' birds once deemed among the rarest migrants, 
come yearly, and remain to rest before passing southwards. 
. . . Here the * barred warbler ' was first seen and 
identified in England, and later Pallas's barred warbler, 
a little bird from the far East, was found there. It was 
90 



By the Wild North Sea 

taken for a gold-crested wren as it flew along the beach, 
but the sharp eyes of a local gunner detected the difference, 
and it was * collected.' The aquatic warbler has also been 
taken recently at the same spot, and the list of minor 
rarities there secured is too long to set out. . . . Black 
storks, rare grebes, and ibises, are among the visitors to 
Salthouse, and some of the rarest of all ducks taken in 
Norfolk or in England were shot at Blakeney. These 




/ t^l^ernna^O'rr 



were, it is believed, four specimens of Steller's duck, one 
of which, in the Norwich Museum, was for fifteen years 
the only specimen of this bird killed in England and 
preserved." Of the arrival of the migrants the same writer 
says : " By night most of the shore birds and sea birds 
come — stints, plovers, terns, ducks, and phalaropes ; but 
by day the land birds drop in at all hours. You may 
wander down at all hours towards Blakeney Point with- 
out seeing a bird, and on returning find the bushes of suasda 
and furze full of thrushes and fieldfares. . . . Walking 
on the great shingle bank at dusk, while the eternal roar 
of the waves over the nine-mile barrier rises and falls with 
a noise like the roaring of a lo-inch shell, you may see the 

91 



Norfolk 

little birds coming in from the sea, just topping the waves, 
and alighting only a yard beyond the froth of the last 
roller on the beach. Then they flutter to a grass tuft, and 
creeping in, fold their weary wings and sleep in the sound 
of the breakers/' 

A great deal about the wild life of this particular district 
and of that lying further west, between Wells and Bran- 
caster, may be learnt by consulting Mr C. J. Cornish's 
" Nights with an Old Gunner,'' in which sport on the 
North Norfolk coast is fully and entertainingly described. 

Cley, which is now only a village though it calls itself 
a town, was once a flourishing place, carrying on a con- 
siderable trade with foreign ports. That time, however, 
has long gone by, and the only indications of its former 
prosperity are its grand old church and the quaint old grey- 
pebble houses which survive the decay of the town's trade. 
Mariners nowadays scarcely recognise Cley as a port, but 
in 1406, when James, son of Robert Bruce of Scotland, 
was driven by stress of weather to the Norfolk coast, he 
sought refuge here. He met with a reception scarcely 
calculated to give him a favourable impression of the place, 
for the loyal mariners of Cley would not allow him to 
depart when he wished, but sent him prisoner to London. 
Cley church, which is partly in ruins, is one of the finest 
in the county. If it could have been kept in thorough 
repair and its transepts, which were never finished, owing to 
the ravages of the Black Death, completed, it would attract 
the attention of every English ecclesiologist. As it is, it 
is a noble structure, and seems strangely out of place in a 
little out-of-the-way coast-line village. Its building was 
commenced in the decorated style, as may be seen by the 
chancel nave and aisles ; but the nave was not completed 
nor the tower built until a time when the perpendicular 
style was generally adopted in the erection of sacred build- 
ings. The unfinished transepts, although in ruins, possess 
some beautiful decorated tracery ; and the clerestory 
windows, in which the ordinary form alternates with 
92 



By the Wild North Sea 

cinquefoils enclosed in circles, are of the same period. The 
south porch is an especially fine one. In addition to em- 
blems of the Trinity and the Passion, it bears, in the 
spandrels, the arms of Richard II., impaling those of 
Anne of Bohemia ; while in the moulding of the jambs are 
represented the Agnus Dei, the Cross Keys, the arms of 
England, and those of the noted Norfolk families of 
De la Pole, Erpingham, and De Warrenne. There is an 
ogee arch to the church doorway, the boss of which shows 
an old woman flinging her distaff at a fox which has stolen 
a goose. There are several old tombs and brasses. One 
brass, which bears the efRgy of a priest, is to the memory 
of John Yslington, who died in 1429; while in the south 
aisle is another, with effigies in shrouds, to John Symons, 
a merchant who died in 1508. An altar tomb in the 
churchyard is that of Captain James Greeve, a gallant sailor 
who fought beside Sir Cloudesley Shovel. It bears the 
inscription : " Here lyeth the body of James Greeve, who 
was an assistant of Sir Cloudesly Shovel in burning ye ships 
in ye port of Tripoly in Barberii, January 14th, 1675-6, 
for his good service pformed was made Capt. of the ship 
called the Orange Tree of Algier in 1677, and presented 
with a medal of gold by King Charles ye 2. He died 
April 14, 1686, aged 48 years." 

Blakeney, which, in spite of its decaying trade, still looks 
upon itself as a port, has a stagnant aspect like Cley. The 
scenery, however, is not without its attractiveness to those 
who can appreciate lonely marshland and deserted shore. 
Inland of Blakeney, by way of Morston, is Langham 
Bishops, where lived Captain Marryat, who here wrote 
"for the classes and not the masses," and amused himself 
with the working of a wild-fowl decoy, while in the neigh- 
bouring hamlet of Cockthorpe Sir Cloudesley Shovel was 
born. The little market town of Holt, which is only a 
few minutes' railway journey from Sheringham, stands on 
rising ground a few miles from the coast, but is scarcely 
worth a visit except for the sylvan scenery which surrounds 

93 



Norfolk 

it. It overlooks the valley of the Glaven, one of those 
little streams which Mr Walter Rye assures us are " dis- 
tinctly perceptible to the naked eye." 

Wells, although it boasts of a harbour and small export 
and import trade, scarcely suggests a seaport, as a mile-wide 
stretch of salt marsh lies between it and the sea. To me it 
always seems a dull, not to say dismal, little town, containing 
little or nothing to reward the tourist. It must be admitted, 
however, that it is a convenient starting-point of one or two 
interesting excursions, notably that to Walsingham, a small 
town about five miles away, once famous for its shrine of 
" Our Lady of Walsingham." This place first came into 
repute in consequence of a widow named Rychold de 
Favranches being moved by a vision to erect here a chapel 
of similar design to the Sancta Casa at Nazareth. This she 
did towards the end of the eleventh century. Subsequent to 
her death, her son Geoffrey de Favranches started on a 
pilgrimage to the Holy Land ; but before leaving his home 
he "granted to God, St Mary, and to Edwy, his clerk, 
the chapel which his mother Rychold had built at Walsing- 
ham, together with other possessions, to the intent that the 
said Edwy should found a priory there." Thus was 
founded the famous priory for Augustine canons which 
became the resort of innumerable pilgrims, who were be- 
lieved to be guided here by the Milky Way, then known 
in Norfolk as the "Walsingham Way." Henry III., 
Edward L, Edward II., Bruce of Scotland, and Henry 
VIII., are recorded to have visited the priory; but rever- 
ence does not appear to have been the sole incitement to the 
pilgrimage of the last King Henry, who carried away with 
him a considerable quantity of votive gifts, in the form of 
gold and jewels. Far more creditable were the motives 
which brought here Margaret Paston, who, when her 
husband was lying ill in the Inner Temple, wrote to him, 
" Ryth worchipful hosbon, I recomande me to yow, 
desyryng hertely to her yowr a mendyng of the grete dysese 
that ye have hade ; and I thanke yow for the letter that ye 
94 



By the Wild North Sea 

sent me, for be my trowthe my moder and I wer nowth in 
hertys es fro the tyme that we woste of yowr sekenesse tyl 
we woste verely of your a mendyng. My moder be hestyd 
a nodyr ymmage of wax of the weytte of yow to oyer 
Lady of Walsyngham, and sche sent iiij nobelys to the iiij 
Orderys of Frerys at Norweche to pray for yow, and I have 
be hestyd to gon on pylgreymmays to Walsingham, and to 
Sent Levenardys for yow ; by my trowthe I had never so 
hevy a sesyn as I had from the tyme I woste of your seke- 
nesse tyl T woste of your a mendying." i 

Erasmus came here in 1 5 1 1 ; but was more impressed 
with the beauty of the shrine than the conduct of the 
pilgrims. He found that, besides the image of" Our Lady," 
the priory contained a vial of the Virgin's milk, and one of 
St Peter's finger bones ! The latter seems to have aston- 
ished him by its size, for he inquired whether St Peter was 
a giant ! The ruins, which are in the grounds of Walsingham 
Abbey, consist of the western gateway of the priory, a part 
of the east end of the church, a Norman arch leading to a 
stone bath, some lancet arches, and the west window of 
what may have been the refectory. In the hamlet of East 
Barsham, which adjoins Walsingham, is the fine Tudor 
Hall built by Sir William Fermor, and afterwards occupied 
by the Calthorpes. From this hall Henry VIIL is said to 
have walked barefoot to Walsingham. The wayside chapel 
of Houghton, known as the Old Shoe House through a 
tradition that pilgrims here cast off their shoes, is within a 
mile of the priory. 

When you are at Walsingham you are only about three 
miles from the ruins of another once famous monastic house — 
Binham Priory, which stands in the valley of the small river 
which flows by Walsingham, and enters the sea at Stiffkey. 
This priory was founded in 1 104 by Peter de Valoines, and 
was at one time subject to the abbey of St Peter at Clugni. 
In the reign of King John it was besieged by Robert, Lord 

^ Extract from a letter written by Margaret Paston on September 
28th, 1443, ^^^ included in the " Paston Letters." 

95 



Norfolk 

Fitzwalter, who claimed the patronage, and wished to rein- 
state a prior who had been deposed by the prior of St 
Albans, to which abbey this foundation was originally a 
cell. The king, however, sent a force to its relief, and 
Lord Fitzwalter was compelled to raise the siege. The 
village church of St Mary was formerly the conventual 
church of the priory, and its Norman work is especially 
interesting. The three eastern bays of the nave are Early 
Norman, as are the transepts and part of the south wall ; but 
the fine west front is Early English (thirteenth century), and 
so are the three western bays. 

Probably, until you read the name of the place in the 
foregoing paragraph, you had never heard of Stiffkey. Or 
you may have heard of it and yet failed to recognise it as 
Stiftkey, for in the neighbourhood of Wells, and in the 
village itself, it is always known as " Stewkey." Yet this 
Stiftkey is one of the most delightfully situated hamlets in 
Norfolk, lying in a beautiful retired vale through which a 
charming rivulet winds towards the sea. It is about three 
and a half miles east of Wells, and the road to it is by no 
means a promising approach to such a lovely spot ; but if 
you are not disheartened by this you will be amply rewarded 
for your pains and perseverance. To judge from the 
remarks of the natives of the surrounding villages, Stiflkey, 
in spite of its beauty, has not a very good reputation. This 
is due to the fact that its inhabitants, who are mainly 
dependent upon cockle-gathering for a livelihood, are a 
people who, as we say in Norfolk, " keep themselves to 
themselves." This is at once evident from their appearance, 
for they are a type distinct from their neighbours, with 
whom they seldom or never intermarry. Most of them 
have red hair, and it is plain to the most casual observer 
that the " keeping of themselves to themselves " which has 
brought this about has also resulted in physical and mental 
deterioration. Most of the cockle-gathering is — or was 
until recently — done by women and girls, who, when they 
are at work on the shore at low-water, wear short and 

96 



By the Wild North Sea 

sometimes bifurcated skirts. Mrs Berlyn, in her " Sunrise- 
Land," draws a gloomy picture of village life at StifFkey, 
which, indeed, is unlike that of any other hamlet in the 
county. As to the hardships endured by the women, she 
writes : " When the east wind blows in from the sea it 
cuts like a flail on the naked legs of the women, stooping 
hour after hour to pick the slimy, glistening molluscs from 




the pools, and rheumatism, say the old ' minders,' is the 
inevitable lot of them all ; for however bleak and cold it 
may be, and whatever may be their constitutions, they will 
plunge into the water knee-deep again and again, day after 
day, to rake from the incoming waves an extra peck to swell 
their sacks. Sometimes it is in the waning light, according 
to the tides, that the women come down for their spoils, 
but always in gangs, for the sea is treacherous ; and once, 
they say, it carried away one of their number, who, working 
alone in the glooming with her back to the waves, learnt 
only of her danger when it was too late." So it is a some- 
what "unlovely life" that is led by the dwellers in this 
lovely peaceful vale. 

There is an old farmhouse at StifFkey, which goes by the 

G 97 



Norfolk 

name of "The Hall." It was built by Sir Nicholas 
Bacon, who was Lord Privy Seal to Queen Elizabeth ; 
but it never attained the dimensions he intended, though it 
was formerly a castellated mansion with imposing circular 
towers. 

About two miles from Wells is Holkham Hall, the seat 
of the Earl of Leicester, standing in the midst of a large and 
beautiful park. The estate came into the possession of the 
family in the seventeenth century ; but the hall, which has 
been described as one of the ugliest buildings imaginable, was 
built between the years 1734 and 1760. The great agricul- 
turalist, Thomas William Coke, better known as " Coke of 
Norfolk," succeeded to the estate in 1776, and was created 
Earl of Leicester and Viscount Coke in 1837. He found 
his land sandy and barren : as he was in the habit of saying, 
" he used to see two rabbits quarrelling for one blade of 
grass." He was assured that nothing could possibly grow 
upon it ; but discovering under the sand a stratum of marl, 
he, by having it dug and spread, eventually obtained from 
his property an annual yield to the value of something like 
;;^2o,coo. At the present time the park is well stocked 
with deer and cattle, and the woods produce more pheasants 
and partridges than any others in England. The park is 
open to the public once a week ; but an inspection of the 
interior of the hall, which at the beginning of the century 
was granted every Tuesday to all except foreigners and artists^ 
can only be obtained by special permission. In the park is 
a large artificial lake dug by "Coke of Norfolk," which is 
visited by large numbers of wild fowl. Anyone standing 
beside it on a winter's day may well be astonished at what 
he sees there. More particularly will this be the case after 
a long spell of severe weather, for then, as a writer has said, 
the fowl "lie as thick as ducks on a mill pond." Not only 
mallard, teal, and widgeon then come to the lake, but scoters, 
golden-eyes, and goosanders. There is a heronry in the 
park, most of the nests being built in beeches which have 
attained such a height that they are visible a long way off. 

98 



By the Wild North Sea 

Holkham is also noted for being a favourite haunt of the 
wild grey geese, concerning which Lord Leicester has 
written : " As long as I can recollect, wild geese have 
frequented the Holkham and Burnham marshes. Their time 
of appearance in this district is generally the last week of 
October, and their departure the end of March, varying a 
little according to the season. Till November they rarely 
alight on the marshes, or elsewhere in the neighbourhood, 
but are seen passing to and fro from the sea. Where they 
feed in October I know not ; but from early in November 
till their time of departure for the north, the Holkham 
marshes have almost daily some hundreds of geese feeding 
in them." The geese referred to are the "pink-footed" 
species, Anser Brachyrhynchus, which breeds in Iceland and 
Spitzbergen. Mr Bowdler Sharpe, who has had oppor- 
tunities of observing them at Holkham, says he has seen 
them flying out day after day to the sandbanks beyond the 
bar of Wells Harbour, uttering their musical " tin-trumpet "- 
like call. 

The Holkham estates are practically a wild fowl 
sanctuary ; but beyond their borders the shore-gunner finds 
plenty of sport as soon as the season sets in. Across the 
lonesome flats and among tiie grey sandhills he prowls in 
search of the birds which have been driven southwards 
from the frozen North. Night and day he is on the look- 
out for them. Grey dawn often finds him crouched in a 
duck-hole scooped out of the wind-heaped sand, waiting for 
a brace of mallards or a flock of widgeon to come within 
range of his gun ; and the red light of winter sunset often 
fades ere he returns to his cottage by the shore. He is 
inured to the inevitable hardships of his calling ; he will lie 
for hours on the bleak sea beach if there is chance of a bag. 
The chill winds may blow and the keen frosts cover the 
pools with ice ; still he remtins at his post, and many and 
strange are the sounds he hears and the sights he sees. 
Almost everything is '< fair game " which comes to him ; 
even a grey gull or hooded crow is not despised ; but it is 

'L.ofC. ^^ 



Norfolk 

the sight of the wild geese flighting that gladdens his 
heart. 

Westward of Holkham are the seven Burnhams. Pro- 
bably, only official land surveyors know where one begins 
and the other ends ; but that need not trouble you, for you 
will only care to visit Burnham Thorpe, the birthplace of 
Nelson. Even here you will find little to repay you for 
your pilgrimage. Of the rectory in which the hero of the 
Nile and Trafalgar first saw the light, nothing marks the 
site except an old well ; but the church lectern is made of 
wood from the Victory. Brancaster, which lies beyond the 
Burnhams, and from which a Roman road' formerly ran all 
along the coast to Caister, is supposed to be the Roman 
Branodoniim ; but most people go to Brancaster nowadays to 
play golf rather than to seek traces of the entrenchments of 
the " Count of the Saxon shore." Those who are not 
fond of salt marshes, even when overgrown with scentless 
sea lavender, will, however, after exploring Holkham, do 
well to take train to Hunstanton, where on the summit of 
the breezy chalk cliffs they may enjoy a wider prospect of 
sea and shore than they have seen since they left Sheringham. 
Hunstanton is another of those pleasantly situated coast-line 
retreats which have begun to compete with Cromer for 
popularity. There is a wide beach, with plenty of rock 
pools at low water, when the tide ebbs so far from the 
white cliffs that even the smart little pier can scarcely wet 
its iron feet in the sea. On a windy day, when the tama- 
risk on the cliff-top is blown about like a cloud of grey- 
green smoke, and you are trying to reach the lighthouse from 
the town, you may perhaps think the place a little too 
breezy ; but people are not blown over the cliff every day, 
and a spice of danger gives a zest to pleasure. 

The old village of Hunstanton, which is a little more 
than a mile from the new t^wn, is notable for its church 
of St Mary and the ancestral home of the L'Estranges. 
This family has held the lordship of the place ever since 
the Conquest, and has produced some famous men. The 
TOO 



By the Wild North Sea 

fine entrance gate and a great part of the old moated hall 
were built by Sir Roger L'Estrange, who died in 1506, 
and to whose memory there is a fine brass in the village 
church. Other portions of the building were added by Sir 
Hamon L'Estrange in the seventeenth century. Thirteen 
generations are represented in the family portraits contained 
in this typical old English mansion, which is filled with 
valuable heirlooms and curiosities gathered together during 
many centuries. Apparently it has been the praiseworthy 
aim of its holders to keep it, as nearly as possible, in its 
original condition ; for to-day you may enter its old armoury, 
hung with rusty suits and coats of mail ; visit the old buttery 
and kitchen in which old-time retainers congregated while 
their masters feasted in the great hall, and see rooms filled 
with furniture which is as old as the house itself. Such a 
place is a part of our English history, as might be realised 
even if it were not for the portrait of the first Pretender 
which hangs upon the great oak staircase, and the know- 
ledge that the L' Estranges have played a prominent part 
in many historical events, and formed alliances with many 
famous families. Probably, in earlier days, they were con- 
sidered rather dangerous neighbours, for we read that in 
1644 Sir Roger L'Estrange planned to capture the neigh- 
bouring town of Lynn. He was betrayed by some of his 
conspiring associates, and condemned to death ; but this 
sentence was commuted to one of imprisonment, and he 
eventually escaped to the Continent. After the Restoration 
he again appeared on the scene, this time as a political writers 
in which direction he was far more successful than as a con- 
spirator. He established the Public Intelligencer^ a paper 
superseded by the London Ga%ette, and was appointed 
" Licenser of the Press." The church of St Mary owes 
its good condition to the family whose memorials are its 
most interesting feature. In the neighbouring village of 
Heacham there is another old hall, occupied by the Rolfes, 
a family which claims to have in its veins the blood 
of the unfortunate Virginian Princess Pocahontas, who 

lOI 



Norfolk 

married John Rolfe, an adventurous comrade of Sir Walter 
Raleigh. 

The neighbourhood of Hunstanton, however, is only a 
comparatively small tract of upland between wide expanses 
of salt marshes, so, as there is little to be gained by con- 
tinuing your coast-line tour across these monotonous levels, 
you will probably prefer to take train at Hunstanton, and 
thus make your way to Sandringham and King's Lynn. 



102 




HUNSTANTON, SANDRINGHAM, CASTLE RISING, AND LYNN. 



Zi/HboatStat^ 

BUNSl 




ITINERARY THE EIGHTH 
IN THE PRINCE'S COUNTRT 

SANDRINGHAM, CASTLE RISING, AND 
king's LYNN 

The Prince's Railway Station — Sandringham Heights — Sandringham 
Hall — The Church in the Park — Its Monuments and Memorials 
— West Newton and Dersingham — Ingoldisthorpe Hall — The 
Murder of Drugo Chamberlain — Dersingham Heath — Bustards 
— Castle Rising — The Prison of the " She-wolf of France " — 
The Bede House — King's Lynn — The Reclamation of the Fens 
—Fighting the Sea— The Red Mount Chapel — The South Gate 
— Greyfriars' Tower — Eugene Aram's School — Lynn Churches 
— The Red Register— The Hamlets of Marshland — Their Fine 
Churches — The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington — Dr Jessop and 
"Marshland." 

Travellers on the coast railway between Hunstanton 
and King's Lynn, when they have completed about two- 
thirds of their journey to the latter town, find the train 
draw up at a station which at once strikes them as being 
vastly different to all others they have come across in their 
journeyings, and which has more the appearance of a fair- 
sized bungalow than a railway station. This is Wolferton 
Station, the nearest stopping-place to Sandringham, and the 
alighting-place of the Prince of Wales when he visits his 
Norfolk home. Here there are no disfiguring advertisements 
on the walls, no automatic machines — not even a weighing 
machine or a porter's barrow litters the smooth-paved plat- 
forms. A special approach for royal carriages leads up to 
royal waiting-rooms ; even the gas lamps with which the 
station is brilliantly lighted have royal crowns. The row of 
fire-buckets, too, are of such ornate design as to make one 
tremble for the effect upon them of use at a fire. It seems 

103 



Norfolk 

almost sacrilege to step upon the spotless platforms without 
wiping the dust from your boots ; but if you wish to see 
Sandringham you must alight here, and follow the pleasant 
turf-bordered woodland road so often used by the lord of 
the manor when he is in residence at Sandringham House. 

It is difficult to imagine a more delightful neighbourhood 
for a prince whose tastes are thoroughly English than this 
of Sandringham. Nowhere in Norfolk is there another 
like it ; indeed the greater part of it might have been trans- 
planted from some county of woods and wild moorlands. 
To gain some idea of its beautv, take your stand upon the 
summit of a hill about a mile from the station, known as 
the Sandringham Heights. From here you get a wide 
view not only of the Prince's estate, with its heathery 
hills and dales and well - stocked preserves, but of the 
cattle-dotted marshes which stretch away from the foot of 
the upland slopes to the low-lying shores of the Wash. 
On a clear day it is possible to see, apparently rising like 
a far-off lighthouse from the sea, the tower of Boston 
church, better known in Norfolk and Lincolnshire as 
*' Boston stump." The outlook embraces a variety of 
scenery. As a writer who devoted considerable time to 
describing Sandringham and its surroundings has said : — 
" Sea, heath, hill, and woodland combine with the soil 
under cultivation, and the well-ordered and well-condi- 
tioned villages, to give this estate the charm of variety, 
which, it must be acknowledged, is also not wanting in 
the climate." Of all the coverts in view from the heights 
the best is Wolferton North Wood, which covers a slope 
leading down to the level shores of the Wash. Indeed, 
it is one of the best coverts in the best shooting county 
in England, and provided excellent sport for the Kaiser 
when he last visited Sandringham. As a rule it is reserved 
for a big "shoot" on December ist, the Princess of 
Wales's birthday. On this and other important occasions, 
the beaters are usually garbed in old English smock frocks, 
such as have almost entirely vanished from rural England. 
104 



In the Prince s Coufitry 



Eighty years ago, when an interesting work, illustrated 
by John Sell Cotman, and entitled " Excursions through 
Norfolk," was brought out, a couple of lines were con- 
sidered sufficient to describe Sandringham, or, as it was 
then spelt, Sanderingham. Now, not a day passes without 
mention of the place being made in some newspaper, every 
month sees special articles devoted to it in the magazines, 
and even books have been written about it. The event 
which led to this great change, occurred in 1861, when 
the Prince of Wales purchased from the Hon. C. Spencer 
Cowper, a son of Lady Palmerston by her first husband 
Earl Cowper, the Sandringham estate for the sum of 
^220,000. The Sandringham House of that time was 
a solid building occupying three sides of a square, and 
the estate, which comprised the parishes of Sandringham, 
Babingley, Appleton, West Newton, Wolferton, and some 
part of Dersingham, was one of about 7,000 acres. As 
soon as the house became a royal residence it proved too 
small and inconvenient for the requirements of the house- 
hold, and, after a scheme of enlargement had been pro- 
nounced impracticable, it was pulled down and the present 
house (commenced in i869^nd completed in 1871) built 
by a local man. 

Through the favour of the Prince the public are now 
admitted to the grounds on one day in the week, when 
the royal family is not in residence. Visitors to the 
neighbciurhood who avail themselves of this opportunity of 
seeing the beauties of the park and gardens come away 
with delightful recollections of the Prince's country home. 
The park, which comprises about 300 acres, has for its 
main entrance the famous Norwich Gates, presented to 
the Prince in 1862 by the county in recognition of the 
favour he has shown Norfolk in living here. These gates 
are made of wrought iron, fashioned into elaborate designs 
of flowers and creeping plants ; and the piers are sur- 
mounted by bronze griffins, supporting armorial shields on 
which are represented His Royal Highnesses various titles. 

105 



Norfolk 

Above the gates are the royal arms, a royal crown, and 
the Prince of Wales's plumes, the whole being well worthy 
of the skill of its makers, a Norwich firm of ironworkers. 
An avenue of limes leads from the gates to the house, 
through delightful gardens. There is a lake, with a 
central island, in the park, and another in the west garden 
amid grassy slopes and lovely flower beds. Beyond this 
garden, and stretching away southward, is the park, where 
the deer wander amid fine oaks, some of which are many 
centuries old. The stables are on the east side of the 
house, and are reached by a broad walk bordered by 
foreign conifera. Several members of the royal family 
possess valuable and curious pets, and most of these are 
usually to be seen in the neighbourhood of the stables, 
where are a bear pit, monkey house, and aviary. Across 
the road which skirts the east side of the pleasure-grounds 
are the kitchen gardens, home farm, and the Princess's 
dairy. York Cottage, which stands in the park, and now 
belongs to the Duke of York, was formerly known as the 
" Bachelors' Cottage," as it was built for the accommo- 
dation of male members of the royal suite. 

Sandringham House is a building of irregular outline, 
in which some attempt is made to reproduce Eliza- 
bethan architecture. Comfort rather than luxury was the 
end the designer had in view, and he seems to have been 
successful in attaining it. This is not the place for a 
description of the interior of a house which is a home 
and not a show place, so I will be content with mention- 
ing that the clock in the turret over the ball-room entrance 
was erected by local tradesmen as a memorial to the late 
Duke of Clarence and Avondale, and that the granite lions 
on the terrace are from Japan, and were presented to the 
Prince by Admiral Keppel. 

An avenue of Scotch firs leads to Sandringham Church, 

which stands on rising ground within the park walls. 

Before the estate became a royal desmesne the church 

had been completely restored by the late Lady Cowper, 

106 



In the Prince s Country 

wife of the Hon. Spencer Cowper, " to commemorate their 
only child ; " but since the Prince has occupied Sandring- 
ham, it has been greatly beautified and adorned. There 
are memorials in the chancel to H.R.H. Princess Alice, 
H.R.H. the Duke of Albany, H.I.M. the Emperor 
Frederick III. of Germany, and H.R.H. the Duke of 
Clarence and Avondale, who died at Sandringham on 




■*^e 'Principal ^Jntrance^ 

January 14th, 1892. Painted windows in the transept 
were the gifts of Her Majesty the Queen, and H.R.H. 
the Duke of Edinburgh ; and the brass lectern bears an 
inscription which shows that it was presented by the 
Princess of Wales as a thank-offering for thfe Prince's 
recovery from a serious illness contracted in 1871. There 
are also memorial windows to the infant Prince Alexander, 
son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, whose grave is in 
the churchyard; brasses to the Rev. W. L. Onslow, M.A., 
the late rector, and Mr Edmund Beck, the late estate agent; 

107 



Norfolk 

and a painted window to the memory of Colonel Grey, one 
of the Prince's equerries. In the nave hang the old colours 
of the Norfolk Regiment, the 9th Foot. 

Inside and outside the park walls there is so much to be 
seen, that one visit to Sandringham scarcely affords oppor- 
tunities for gaining more than general impressions. The 
cottages of the workers on the estate, the farm where the 
stock is raised which competes so successfully at agri- 
cultural shows, the village of West Newton with its church, 
club-house, and school, all of which owe much to the 
Prince's generosity, call for more attention than can be 
bestowed upon them in one day. West Newton church 
is especially interesting on account of the numerous valuable 
offerings which have been made to it by members of the 
Royal Family. At Babingley, another hamlet in the 
Prince's estate, the church is believed to stand on the 
site of the first Christian church erected in England — that 
built by St Felix, the Burgundian bishop, when he intro- 
duced Christianity into East Anglia ; while at Dersingham, 
a large parish adjoining Sandringham, is a fine church 
which you should not leave the neighbourhood without 
examining. It has a splendid thirteenth century east 
window, a " lowside " or lepers' window, a curious 
aumbry, and a fine old parish chest with representations 
of the Evangelists on its panels. At Ingoldisthorpe, a 
neighbouring hamlet, is a house with which it is possible 
to associate a great deal of romantic interest. It is the 
dreary old moated manor-house known as Ingoldisthorpe 
Hall. Many centuries ago an ancient lord of the manor, 
one Thomas de Ingoldisthorpe, was, with a certain 
Herbert de Pastele, implicated in the murder of one 
Drugo Chamberlain. A brother of the murdered man 
sued De Pastele, who was compelled, by a king's license, 
to travel to Jerusalem, " there to serve God for the soul 
of Drugo who was slain, during the space of seven years," 
while Thomas de Ingoldisthorpe was ordered to find a 
monk or canon to pray for Drugo's soul, and had to pay 
108 



In the Princess Country 

Drugo's parents twenty marks. Some of the gruesome 
interest of this story still seems to cling to the ancient 
walls of Ingoldisthorpe Hall. 

South of Dersingham are nearly 2000 acres of sandy 
heath and warren. This wide heathland was one of the 
last haunts of the great bustards. In 1838, a bustard 
sold at Cambridge was ascertained to have been the last 
survivor of a drove which had frequented this district for 
many years. Droves of great bustards which had haunted 
the heaths and warrens of Thetford and Icklingham,, on the 
Suffolk border, and the heaths around Swaftham, became 
extinct about the same time. If you are fond of botan- 
izing you will find the neighbourhood of Sandringham a 
good one, for the variety of soil produces almost every kind 
of flora. On the salt marshes and fenny tracts of Wolfer- 
ton, on the seashore and heaths, and in the woods, fields, 
and meadows, there is an abundance of wild plant life, in- ' 
eluding many rare species. 

Midway between Sandringham and Lynn, and about two 
miles from North Wootton Station, is Castle Rising. There 
was a time when this little village was a Parliamentary 
borough, whose mayor ranked as the chief municipal digni- 
tary of the county ; but its glory has departed, and now it 
is principally noted for its grand old castle, which dates 
from the reign of William Rufus. The most striking 
portion of the ruins of this once famous fortress, which is 
erected within ancient earthworks, is its keep, built by 
William D'Albini, the first Earl of Sussex. It measures 
seventy-five feet from east to west, sixty-four from north 
to south, and is about fifty feet high. An ornamented 
staircase leads up to the first floor, which contains a square 
room lighted on three sides by Norman windows, two 
galleries with a hall between them, and a small decorated 
chamber. North of the tower are the remains of a 
Norman chapel, discovered during the present century, 
and displaying architecture said to be older than the keep. 
The approach to the castle is through a Norman gate- 

109 



Norfolk 

house. A number of curiosities are preserved by the 
present owner of this ancient stronghold, and are ex- 
hibited by its custodian. In the fourteenth century the 




castle was bought by Edward III., whose mother. Queen 
Isabella, the "She-wolf of France," was imprisoned here 
after the execution of her favourite Mortimer. The village 
church, which stands amid a grove of fine old trees, is one 
IIO 



In the Prince s Country 

of the best examples of Norman architecture in England, 
and has some singular external ornamental work on either 
side of the old window at its west end. Adjoining the 
churchyard is what is known as the Bede House, an old 
almshouse founded in the reign of James I. It is inhabited 
by a number of old women who on Sundays go to church 
in a curious garb of the Jacobean period, consisting of blue 
gowns, bright red capes, and frill-lined, "extinguisher "- 
crowned beaver hats. A little chapel, with old oak 
benches, is connected with the Bede House, and here 
prayers are supposed to be offered daily for the soul of 
the founder of the charity, Henry Howard, the eccentric 
Earl of Northampton. There is accommodation in the 
almshouse for twelve inmates, who, to be eligible for 
admission, must, in accordance with the stipulations of 
the founder, " be of an honest life and conversation, 
religious, grave, and discreet, able to read, if such a one 
may be had, a single woman, her place to be void upon 
marriage, to be fifty years of age at least, no common 
beggar, harlot, scold, drunkard, haunter of taverns, inns, 
or alehouses." 

An hour and a half's walk, or a few minutes' railway 
ride, will now take you to King's Lynn, the terminating 
point of your journey along the Norfolk coast. A good 
many people who do not live at Lynn, and not a few who 
live there, have not a good word to say for the town ; and 
I must admit that, if I could, I would choose a different 
place for the ending of this coastline tour. " A decent 
place if every second turning did not take you into a slum," 
says one who would have you believe he is expressing a 
general opinion ; but what he would call " slums " are not 
uncommon in ancient towns. The writer of the only local 
guide-book to be obtained " for love or money " begins his 
description of the place with a gloomy picture of an almost 
shipless harbour, hollow-sounding warehouses and granaries, 
and a depressing succession of empty houses ; though he 
hastens to assui'e you that these were features of the Lynn 

III 



Norfolk 

of the 1860S, and are not those of the Lynn of to-day. 
An air of stagnation certainly seems to pervade the town, 
and the number of idlers observed on doorsteps and at 
street corners is disproportionate to its size ; still, a borough 
in which by some means or other, nearly 20,000 people 
contrive to exist cannot be entirely wanting in commercial 
enterprise. For my present purpose, however, it suffices 
that the town contains several " sights " and antiquities 
calculated to afford pleasure to a stranger within its gates. 
If space could be afforded, a great deal might be written 
here about the past history of Lynn and its neighbourhood, 
and some interesting information included concerning the 
devastating inroads of the sea which occurred when what 
is now known as the Fenland really deserved the name. 
In the days when the Romans descended upon East Anglia 
the land for fifty miles around the shores of the Wash was 
scarcely land at all, and only here and there, in places 
almost inaccessible to the invading legions, the natives 
managed to exist in small settlements surrounded by vast 
swamps. Then, the south of Lincolnshire, the west of 
Norfolk, part of Suffolk, nearly the whole of Cambridge- 
shire, and portions of Huntingdonshire and Northampton- 
shire^ — or rather of the districts which now bear these 
names — were submerged by every flood tide, and if Lynn 
existed at all it was only as a small settlement. It un- 
doubtedly owed the importance it had attained to in the 
time of the Conqueror to the Romans, who either them- 
selves raised, or caused the vanquished Britons to construct, 
solid embankments along the coast, which served, in a 
measure, to keep out the sea. Land was thus reclaimed, 
and turned to good account by the planting of orchards, 
the laying down of pastures, and the cultivation of corn ; 
so that the Fens, as they are still called, became a "fat" 
land, noted for its fruitfulness in cattle and crops. Men 
learned to live peaceful lives, devoted to their farms and 
homesteads ; but all the while they had an enemy at their 
gates, ever ready to take advantage of an opportunity to 
112 



/// the Prince s Country 






devastate their hard-won lowlands. This enemy was the 
sea, and often during the centuries which elapsed between 
the Conquest and the comparatively recent completion of a 
really effective system of drainage and defence its waves 
for a time won back its ancient bed and 
desolated Fenland fields and homes. The 
intervals between these disastrous floods, how- 
ever, were long enough to enable the fenmen 
to repair the damage done and maintain the 
general condition of the district, so Lynn, 
the chief port of the coast and a favoured (ji. 
borough of several kings, grew in wealth and It <> 
fame. 

One of the first of Lynn's antiquities which 
you see, as you leave the station and turn into 
the pleasant "Walks" which open out near 
by, is the Red Mount Chapel, an 
octangular erection on a mound in 
the midst of this popular summer 
resort. The prior of Lynn in the 
year 1483 was responsible for its 
building, and it contains three 
storeys, the lower of which is a 
vault and the upper a cruciform 
chapel with a beautiful groined 
roof. Mackerell says that " this 
religious place was a receptacle for 
the pilgrims who took this in their 
way, to say their orisons at, as they 
travelled along towards the sometime famous and celebrated 
priory or convent of our Lady at Walsingham." Not far 
from the walks, and on the way to the cemetery, is the 
massive South Gate, built in the fifteenth century to replace 
an earlier one which formed part of the early fortifications 
of the town. Above the main archway, in which the 
groove of the portcullis is still to be seen, is a guardroom, 
and on either side are smaller arches for the convenience 

H 113 




(B-r><?y/r/OPf 



Norfolk 

of foot-passengers. Although not such a substantial build- 
ing as the South Gate, the Greyfriars' Tower, which 
stands in the Grammar School Garden, is a finer relic 
of the town's past. This lofty tower, supported by four 
piers, is all that is left of a monastery founded in the 
thirteenth century. The Grammar School near the tower 
is not, as is often stated, that in which Eugene Aram 
was an under-master when, in 1758, he was arrested for 
the murder of Daniel Clark of Knaresborough. The 
school at which Aram taught was held in a chapel con- 
nected with the parish church. This chapel was demol- 
ished in 1779. There was once an Austin Friary in 
Austin Lane, to the south of St Nicholas Church, but all 
that remains of it is a bricked-up gateway. 

Like Norwich Cathedral and St Nicholas' Church at 
Yarmouth, Lynn parish church owes its foundation to the 
Norman bishop Lozinga. Its architecture is of various 
periods, Norman, Early English, and the Decorated styles 
being each in evidence. A little more than a century and 
a half ago the nave and aisles were destroyed by the falling 
of the spire of the south-west tower ; but they were soon 
restored, the nave in what someone calls " a conscientious 
manner but debased style." There are some curious miserere 
seats in the stalls, under which are grotesque carvings. 
The most interesting things in the church are a couple of 
brasses of Flemish workmanship to the memory of Robert 
Braunche and Adam de Walsoken. They are in the 
south-west tower. On the Braunche brass is depicted what 
is supposed to be a banquet given to Edward IIL by Braunche 
during his mayoralty. Comment is often made upon the 
fact that one of the guests is represented in the act of strad- 
dling across the table in his eagerness to get at one of the 
dishes of peacocks being brought in by female attendants. 
The other brass is engraved to represent a vintage harvest. 
The church is very much smaller than it used to be, for at one 
time its length was 240 feet and its width 118 feet, while 
its south-west tower and spire rose to the height of 275 feet. 
114 



In the Prince s Country 

St Nicholas', a chapel-of-ease to St Margaret's, stands a 
little way from the market-place. It was built in the 14th 
century, and is an impressive structure, though pronounced 
by an authority on church architecture "a bad specimen of 
a good style." It has magnificent east and west windows 
and a beautiful south porch. Among the monuments on its 
walls is one to the memory of Sir Benjamin Keene, K.B., 
a native of the town, who was Ambassador at the Court of 
Spain, and died at Madrid in 1757. His remains were 
conveyed to England and buried here. Let into the floor 
is a gravestone which bears the name of Robinson Cruso, and 
near the font is another to the memory of a certain Thomas 
Hollingworth, who is described as having been " an eminent 
bookseller. . . much esteemed by gentlemen of taste for the 
neatness and elegance of his binding." The modern church 
of St John, near the station, owes its existence to the late 
Mr Motteux of Sandringham Hall, who, on being twice 
ejected from pews in St Nicholas, made inquiries as to the 
accommodation in the Lynn churches, and, finding it insuffi- 
cient, contributed ^^ 1,500 towards the building of a new 
church. 

The Guildhall or Town Hall is an ancient building in the 
Saturday Market-place. Its Elizabethan porch attracts 
attention, and should you enter the Assembly Room you 
will find there a number of portraits worth examining, in- 
cluding those of William III. and Mary, Lord Nelson, and 
Sir Robert Walpole. Among the records preserved in the 
hall is the " Red Register of Lynn," which dates from 
1309 and is one of the oldest paper books in England. A 
goblet known as King John's Cup, said to have been given 
by that monarch to the Corporation, is to be found in the 
possession of the mayor. 

The old merchant princes of Lynn were able to build 
substantial and imposing mansions, some of which are still 
to be seen in the streets of the old town, though most of 
them have lost something of their impressiveness and sub- 
stantiality. One of the best preserved is in Queen Street, 

115 



"Norfolk 



which opens out of the Saturday market-place. It has two 
inner courts and an old brick tower ; but the glory of it is 
gone. This was a splendid Jacobean mantelpiece which was 







sold not long ago for -^900. In the same street are some 
ancient buildings that once constituted a college for priests, 
founded by Thomas Thoresby, a i6th century mayor of the 
borough ; and in King Street is the Custom House, which 
116 



In the Prince s Country 

dates from 1683, and has a statue of Charles II. over the 
entrance. It is just such a building as one might imagine 
that to have been which Hawthorne refers to in his introduc- 
tion to " The Scarlet Letter," where he writes of a decay- 
ing New England port. In King Street, too, is St George's 
Hall, an old guildhall sometime used as a theatre. Lynn 
scarcely looks a place where a touring theatrical company 
would draw large audiences, and in this respect it cannot 
have altered much since the time when George Stephens, 
after an unsuccessful season, parodied in this hall Lorenzo's 
address to Jessica : 

" O Jessica, in such a night as this we came to town, 
And since that night we've shared but haif-a-crown. 
Let you and I, then, bid these folks good-night, 
For if we longer stay they'll starve us quite." 

A visit to the Docks suggests that, after all, Lynn's 
commercial stagnation is more apparent than real, for these 
are not ancient docks with decaying wharves, but modern 
basins with every sign about them of considerable maritime 
trade. As a fishing port, however, Lynn will not bear 
comparison with Yarmouth and Lowestoft, for the boats 
which carry on the local whelk and mussel fisheries are 
only cockle-shell— or shall I say mussel-shell — 'longshore 
craft. 

A glance at an ordinary atlas might lead you to imagine 
that by going to Lynn you would be able to bathe in the 
sea and enjoy the golden sands. But Lynn is quite two 
miles from the Wash, and a much greater distance must be 
travelled before you can step upon a sandy beach. By a 
stroll along the banks of the Lynn Cut, however, you may 
obtain a wide view of the reclaimed land and unreclaimed 
ooze flats and salt marshes which stretch away towards the 
sea. And if the sight of these tempts you to explore still 
further into the recesses of Marshland, you may, by journey- 
mgs south and west of the town, gain some idea of the 
Fenland of to-day, and of the strenuous eflx>rts which its 

117 



Norfolk 

old-time inhabitants made to win it from the waves. In 
the course of your peregrinations you will come across some 
grand old churches, first rank among which must be accorded 
to those of Terrington St Clement, Wiggenhall St Mary, 
and Walpole St Peter. Of Tilney Smeeth, a wide ex- 
panse of pasture upon which the men of Marshland had 
a right to feed their cattle, and which is referred to in one 
of the romantic tales of Tom Hickathrift, the fighting giant, 
a story is told which deserves to be true. A courtier is 
said to have spoken of it to King James I., and, referring 
to its fertility, stated that " if over-night a wand or rod was 
laid on the ground, in the morning it would be covered with 
grass of that night's growth so as not to be discerned." 
The King's response to this assertion was that he " knew 
some grounds in Scotland, where, if a horse was put in 
over-night, they could not see or discern him in the 
morning ! " At Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalene was 
founded that Crabb or Crabhouse Abbey, of which Dr 
Jessop has written so delightfully in his " Frivola ; " and 
Islington, a straggling village near the high road from Lynn 
to Wisbech, is the Islington of the ballad-famous bailiff's 
daughter. Of the district lying westward of Lynn Dr 
Jessop writes : — " The Ouse was the western boundary 
beyond which it was not worth while for the Norfolk men 
in the early times to fix their habitations ; for all to the 
westward of the river stretched an enormous morass, say 
fifteen miles from north to south, and eight or ten from east 
to west. ... It is even now a dreary region, a land of 
marshes and big drains and swamps. The water is naught, 
for all its horrible abundance ; but the land is very rich in 
pasture, such as cattle thrive on." Here, you may see the 
tide-walls erected centuries ago, some of them by the 
Romans, to keep out the sea, and also the " cuts" or drains 
made by Cornelius Vermuyden when that Dutch experi- 
menter attempted to improve the condition of the marshlands ; 
while at West Walton, where the Nene divides Norfolk 
from Cambridgeshire, in the church there, you may read a 
ii8 



In the Prince s Country 

curious inscription, recording how, in 1613, 1614, and 
167 1, "the sea broke in and overflowed all Marshland, to 
the great danger of Men's lives and losse of goods," and 
concluding with the quaint lines : — 

" Surely our sins were tinctured in graine 
May we not say the labour was in vaine 
Soe many washings still the Spotts remaine." 



IK 



ITINERARY THE NINTH 

AN EXCURSION ACROSS-COUNTRT 

NORWICH TO EAST DEREHAM, SWAFFHAM, 
AND HOUGHTON 

Heigham — Bishop Hall's Old Palace — Costessy Hall — " The 
Jerningham Letters " — Honingham — East Dereham — Cow- 
per's Tomb — Borrow's Birthplace — Borrow and Dereham — 
The Tomb of Withburga — The Bell Tower — Sir Robert 
Walpole and Dereham — "All Joys to Great Caesar" — Sleepy 
Swaffham — Castleacre Castle and Priory — Houghton Hall — 
Sir Robert Walpole — The Houghton Pictures — Walpole at 
Houghton. 

In the two foregoing chapters I have indicated how, by 
starting from Yarmouth, you may reach Lynn by a long 
and interesting tour along the coast. I will now describe 
an itinerary by which you may, by a more direct route 
through the heart of the county, arrive at the ancient 
Fenland town, or, if you chose, deviate from this direct 
route and, by way of Fakenham, reach Wells, on the North 
Norfolk seaboard. Norwich is again your starting-point, 
and you have the choice of setting out for East Dereham 
by one or the other of two ways. You may take train 
from Norwich (Thorpe Station), or follow the Dereham 
turnpike, which runs westward out of the city, through 
Heigham. Assuming the latter route is selected, you have 
a sixteen miles journey to Dereham, a distance inconsiderable 
to the cyclist, and not too far as a day's walking tour for 
an average pedestrian, especially as apart from the pleasant 
pastoral scenery, which may occasionally tempt you to 

I20 



» 



D^ 




NORWICH TO DEREHAM, SWAFFHAM, CASTLE ACRE, AND HOUGHTON. 



An Excursion Across-Country 




loiter, there is not much to delay you between Heigham 
and Dereham. 

At Heigham, however, you should see the old Dolphin 
Inn, which is a favourite subject with artists. This pictur- 
esque old flint-faced inn was, in the middle of the 1 7th 
century, the palace of the 
celebrated Bishop Hall of 
Exeter, who retired here 
after being subjected to 
great persecution by the / 
Puritans. The figures 
above the doorway 
seem to indicate the date 
of its erection, though 
some authorities say it 
was built about thirty 
years later. There is some 
curious carving in the in- 
terior, and one room, a 
parlour to the right of the 
entrance, is wainscotted all 
round with oak. 

Continuing along the turnpike you reach, about four miles 
from Norwich, Costessy or Cossey Park, which extends 
down to the roadside. The village is some two miles from 
the high road, and it is not worth your while to go out of 
your way to see it ; but the park is peculiar in that it 
contains two halls, an old one, for many years the seat of 
that noted Norfolk family, the Jerninghams ; and a new 
one in which Lord Stafford, the present representative of 
the family, resides. The old hall was erected in the reign 
of Elizabeth, and is surrounded by some of the finest trees 
in the county. Of the inner life of the Jerningham family 
during the last quarter of the eighteenth and the first half 
of the nineteenth centuries many delightful and interesting 
glimpses are given in " The Jerningham Letters," edited 
by Mr Egerton Castle, and published in 1 896. Had I the 

121 






Norfolk 

space to spare, I could give many extracts from these 
letters, specially referring to Cossey Hall and its former 
inhabitants : as it is I cannot resist the temptation to quote 
from one or two of them. Lady Jerningham, who is the 
writer of a great number of the letters, must have been a 
terror to her friends, for this is how she describes one of 
her guests : — " Madame de Tott is at Cossey. She is very 
Clever, and particularly Religious, going every week to the 
Sacraments, but she puts on white and red, Lames herself 
with small Shoes, and wears a Corset that tortures her from 
its Length and tightness. What an odd Patchwork ! She 
tells me, with the most Dissipated Face and appearance, 
that she is always thinking of death and preparing for it ! " 
A month later she writes : — " Madame de Tott continues 
wishing to be intime with you. She is a pleasant woman, 
but laughs too loud for a Saint, she is however a woman of 
strict Principle, and has lived with Demons." 

Attached to Cossey Hall is a large domestic chapel 
dedicated to St Augustine of England, the Jerninghams, 
it must be understood, having always been one of the 
leading Roman Catholic families in the country. Con- 
cerning this chapel and his own family, Edward Jerning- 
ham, while travelling in the year 1810 in the Bury coach, 
heard some interesting details from a traveller who was 
unaware of his companion's identity. At the end of his 
journey he wrote to his brother. Sir George Jerningham : — 
" I had some pleasant companions yesterday in the coach, 
among others an old clergyman of the name of Reeve, the 
rector of Bungay. He had no guess who I was, and I 
easily therefore pumped him upon several topics — He is a 
very liberal, sensible man — we talked of Catholics and he 
approves entirely of the Bishop of Norwich's sentiments — 
He advised me strongly to go and see a magnificent Roman 
Chapel at Cossey, saying that he had not seen it himself 
but that his son, who lives in the neighbourhood, wrote 
him that it was the precise model of King's College Chapel 
— Upon this I expressed some doubts, but He immediately 
122 



An Excursion Across-Cou7itry 

replied that the size was certainly greatly reduced from the 
model, yet that all the parts were exactly copied, and that 
he has authentic information that it has cost Sir George 
Jerningham twenty-five thousand pounds — ' Wonderful,' 
added he, * are the numbers that flock to this chapel every 
Sunday.' The whole coach was in amazement, and I 
promised faithfully to go and see it the next time I should 
travel into these parts." 

About seven miles from Norwich is the village of 
Honingham, where, in an ancient church, are some in- 
teresting monuments, one to the memory of Sir Thomas 
Richardson, a seventeenth century Lord Chief Justice. 
After passing through this hamlet, there is little to delay 
you until you reach Dereham. 

During the latter years of the eighteenth century, 
Cow per lived at Dereham, and, in all probability, it is to 
his tomb in St Nicholas Church that you will make your 
way as soon as you enter the town. You will find on 
the wall of the north transept a white marble tablet, sur- 
mounted by a sculptured Bible, copy of " The Task," 
and the poet's bays, and bearing this inscription : 

In Memory 

of William Cowper, Esq., 

Born in Hertfordshire, 1732. 

Buried in this church, 1800. 

Ye, who in warmth the public triumph feel 

Of talents, dignified by sacred zeal, 

Here to devotion's bard, devoutly just, 

Pay your fond tribute due to Cowper's dust. 

England, exulting in his spotless fame, 

Ranks with her dearest sons his fav'rite name. 

Sense, fancy, wit, suffice not all to raise 

So dear a title to affection's praise. 

His highest honours to the heart belong ; 

His virtues formed the magic of his song. 

Cowper, whom Borrow calls *' England's sweetest and 
most pious bard," lived and died in the house of his 

123 



Norfolk 

cousin Mr Johnson, which formerly stood in the market- 
place. Its site is marked by a Cowper Chapel. 

A writer whose memory Norfolk men delight to honour, 
because he was a native of the county, is George Henry 
Borrow, who was born in a house which, according to 
Dr Knapp, his biographer, is still to be seen in the 
hamlet of Dumpling Green, about a mile-and-a-half 
from Dereham. Borrow was always enthusiastic about 
his birthplace, and in " Lavengro," a book which we 
now know to be largely autobiographical, he writes : — 

" I love to think on thee, pretty quiet D , thou 

pattern of an English country town, with thy clean but 
narrow streets branching out from thy modest market- 
place, with thine old-fashioned houses, with here and 
there a roof of venerable thatch, with thy one half- 
aristocratic mansion, where resided thy Lady Bountiful,^ 
— she, the generous and kind, who loved to visit the 
sick, leaning on her gold-headed cane, whilst the sleek 
old footman walked at a respectful distance behind . . . 

Yes, pretty D , I could always love thee, were it 

but for the sake of him who sleeps beneath the marble 
slab in yonder quiet chancel.'' Borrow, when a boy, 
was taken twice every Sunday to Dereham Church, 
" where, from a corner of the large spacious pew, lined 
with black leather," he would fix his eyes on '* the 
dignified High-church rector," and admire the way in 
which he and "the dignified High-church clerk" rolled 
out the portentous words of the Liturgy. The "dignified 
High-church clerk " was an old Dereham cordwainer, 
whose gravestone you may see as you enter the church 
porch. 

The bell tower, as it is called, of St Nicholas ', is 
detached from the church, and is notable for having been 
used as a prison in the days when French prisoners-of- 
war were conveyed " across country " from Yarmouth to 

1 Dame Eleanor Fenn, wife of Sir John Fenn, the editor of the 
" Paston Letters." 
124 



An Excursion Across-Country 

the great prison at Norman Cross, in Huntingdonshire. 
In 1799, '^ young Frenchman named Jean de Narde, the 
son of a notary-public of St Malo, managed to escape 
from this tower, but was pursued and shot by a sentry. 
The unfortunate soldier was buried in the churchyard, 
and a stone to his memory, erected by the rector of that 
time, and renewed by a later one, records how he came 
by his end. A more interesting and far more ancient 
churchyard relic of the past, however, is an archway in 
an enclosed hollow into which a spring of water flows. 
Some people assert that this archway is nothing more 
than a portion of an ancient baptistery ; but the follow- 
ing inscription appears above it : — 

" The Ruins of a Tomb which contained the Remains of 

WiTHBURGA, 

youngest daughter of 
Annas, 
King of the East Angles, 
who died a.d. 654. 
The Abbot and Monks of Ely 
stole this precious relic 
and translated it to Ely Cathedral, 
where it is interred near her three Royal sisters." 

The " precious relic " referred to in this somewhat vague 
inscription was, of course, the ashes of the princess, who 
here founded and became prioress of a nunnery. A fine 
old carved chest in the church is believed to be nearly five 
hundred years old. It was discovered in the ruins of 
Buckenham Castle, and probably belonged to the Howards, 
Dukes of Norfolk. It was presented to the church in 
1786. In the long roll of Dereham rectors the most 
famous is Bishop Bonner, whom old history books usually 
describe as " the infamous." He was rector from 1534 to 
1540. 

Although Dereham is now a charming little town, fully 
justifying Borrow's rhapsodies, there was a time when it 
was looked upon as the worst laid-out and dirtiest town in 

125 



Norfolk 

Norfolk. When Sir Robert Walpole heard that its in- 
habitants proposed to pave it, he was so pleased that he 
.nvited them all to Houghton Hall. An old account of 
this event says that " Such of them as accepted the invitation 
were headed by the then chief constable and clerk of the 
parish . . . who, after being entertained in the most hospi- 
table manner, received Sir Robert's donation of twenty 
guineas towards the good work carrying on. But this 
joyous company being exhilarated by liquor, forgot them- 
selves so far as to be induced, by the proposals of a few, 
to sing in chorus a famous Jacobite song called * All joys 
to great Caesar,' etc. Sir Robert, who was well acquainted 
with mankind, sent them home happy in themselves, and 
by no means displeased with him." Considering how far 
Houghton is from Dereham, it would probably be interesting 
if the historian had recorded how the company got home. 

From Dereham there are two railway routes to Lynn : 
by way of Swaffham, which will enable you to visit the 
ruins of Castle Acre Castle and Priory ; or by way of 
Fakenham and Little Massingham, the latter of which is 
the nearest station to Sir Robert Walpole's old home, 
Houghton Hall. 

Swaffham, although an ancient town, and surrounded by 
breezy heaths and leafy bird-haunted lanes, has little besides 
its church to tempt you to stay in it. Dwellers in the 
sleepiest of Sleepy Hollows would find little here to stir 
them. It is one of those somnolent towns where, if you 
enter a shop, the shopkeeper, after peering at you through 
a small window in the wall, emerges from some little back 
parlour, and, stifling a yawn, requests to know your business 
with the air of a man who has been awakened from a 
dream. Its church is fine and interesting, even if you 
refuse to accept the old story about its steeple and nave 
having been built by a travelling tinker. It is a cruciform 
perpendicular church, with an embattled tower ; and in 
addition to the north and south transepts, which were 
chapels of the Virgin and Holy Trinity, has attached to 
126 



An Excursion Across-Country 

the south aisle a projection which was once a chapel of 
Corpus Christi. There is a monument here to Catherine 
Steward, who died in 1 590, and over the vestry is a priest's 
chamber, in which some old armour and a number of 
valuable old books are preserved. There is an altar tomb, 




QofHeJTcre 



too, with an effigy of John Botewright, D.D., a rector of 
the parish in the reign of Henry VI. 

Castle Acre is little more than four miles from Swaff ham, 
in a northerly direction. Both its castle and priory are 
believed to have been erected by the Conqueror's favourite, 
William de Warrenne, first Earl of Surrey, though there 
is abundant evidence that the former occupies the site of a 

127 



Norfolk 

much earlier fortress, probably a Roman station. Apparently 
the castle was originally a circular structure surrounded by 
a substantial embattled wall, of which many traces remain. 
In its prime, this ancient stronghold must have been an 
imposing place, and it is recorded that Edward T. was enter- 
tained here by one of its holders. That there was a very 
old settlement in the neighbourhood was conclusively 
proved in 1891, when, under the direction of Dr Jessop, 
extensive excavations were made on a farm where there were 
indications of the presence of an ancient burying ground. A 
large number of more or less perfect sepulchral urns of rude 
workmanship, containing charred human bones and crudely 
wrought ornaments, were unearthed, and have been assigned 
to a period not later than the seventh century of the Chris- 
tian era. The priory, which stands about half a mile from 
the castle, is represented by a considerable portion of the 
west front, still in good state of preservation ; a ruined 
tower, and the remains of a chapter-house and chapel. At 
the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Cotman 
made a couple of good drawings of the priory, it was 
considered one of the finest ruins in the county. The 
passage of ninety years has done little to rob it of the 
distinction. It is fortunate, however, that with the castle, 
it, a good many years ago, came into the possession of the 
Earls of Leicester, as since then the depredations of the 
villagers, who had done much to destroy and deface its 
splendid workmanship, have been put a stop to. Even 
now you may come across here and there in the older 
houses of the locality, indications of raids made upon the 
stonework of castle and priory, from the latter of which the 
antique font in the parish church is said to have been 
removed. In the neighbouring parish of West Acre are the 
remains of another priory founded by Ralph de Toni in 
the reign of William I., but these are of very scanty 
proportions. 

If you set out for Lynn by the high road, you will, when 
about five miles from Swaffham, pass through the village 
128 



An Excursion Across-Country 



of West Bilney, where Thomas Bilney, who was burnt at 
Norwich in 153 i, lived while a clerk in holy orders. The 
ashes of the martyr were enclosed in an urn and buried in 
the churchyard, where the urn was discovered a few years 
ago while the sexton was digging a grave. A tract of 
land near West Bilney church is known as *' Bloodfields," 
through having been the scene of an engagement during 
the Civil Wars. 
Neither the cottage 
in which Bilney is 
supposed to have 
lived, nor the battle- 
field, are sufficiently 
interesting to justify 
you in going out of 
your way to visit 
them ; so, having 
seen Castle Acre, 
you will do well 
to journey direct by 
road or rail to Lynn. 

Harking back to 
Dereham, I may 

briefly refer to the route to Lynn by way of Fakenham. 
The chief place of interest between Dereham and Faken- 
ham is Elmham Hall, built in 1727, and at one time 
occupied by Earl Sondes, who fought at Waterloo. 
Elmham is a very ancient place, and was the episcopal 
seat of one of the two dioceses into which the kingdom 
of the East Angles was divided about 673 a.d., but it 
contains few signs of its early importance. Nor will 
you find much to detain you in Fakenham, a small town 
on a slight rise to the north of the river Wensum ; 
but you must leave the train at Massingham Station if you 
wish to visit Houghton. The hall, which is some three 
miles from the station, was built by Sir Robert Walpole, 

I 129 




Norfolk 

the great prime minister, and an inscription over the entrance 
indicates that its erection took nearly thirteen years. If not 
the largest country mansion in Norfolk, it is one of the 
largest, and stands in the midst of a domain of park and 
woodland of some 1 400 acres. Its two grand fronts, which 
the passage of years has only made more impressive, are 
connected with the wings by balustraded colonnades. The 
figures over the doors are the work of Rysbrach, and 
Girarchon contributed a bronze Laocoon to the interior. 
The ceiling of the salon is painted with a design representing 
Phoebus and the Horses of the Sun. Subsequent to the com- 
pletion of this immense mansion, Sir Robert got together here 
a magnificent collection of pictures; but his grandson George, 
Earl of Orford, whose fortunes had become somewhat im- 
paired, disposed of it to the Empress Catherine of Russia 
for ;^40,555, and it now adorns the walls of one of the 
imperial palaces of St Petersburg. England thus lost pos- 
session of some of the finest works of Rembrandt, Rubens, 
Titian, Guido, Raffaelle, and Murillo. Even now, however, 
the hall contains rare and valuable art treasures, among them 
pictures by Vandyck, Titian, Raffaelle, Claude, and Sir 
Joshua Reynolds. Splendid avenues of trees lead up to 
the hall. Some of the oaks in the park are centuries old, 
having stood there when an earlier mansion, in which Sir 
Robert was born and spent his childhood, occupied the 
site of the present one. The father of the famous minister 
was a bluff old country squire, whose ancestors had for 
centuries been lords of the manor of Houghton, and one 
of whom was the heir of that unfortunate Amy Robsart 
whose tragic death at Cumnor Hall suggested to Sir Walter 
Scott the writing of Kenilivorth. 

Robert Walpole was the third son of the Squire of 
Houghton, but, at the age of twenty-two, owing to the 
death of his two elder brothers, he became the heir to the 
estate. He was then at Cambridge, studying with a view 
to entering the Church. Resigning his scholarship, he re- 
turned to Houghton, where his father set him "to superintend 
130 



An Excursion Across-Country 

the sale of the cattle in the neighbouring towns/* and taught 
him to spend his evenings in the convivial fashion of the 
time. He learnt to drink deeply, for the old squire was in 
the habit of filling his son's glass twice for every time he 
filled his own, at the same time saying, " Come, Robert, 
you shall drink twice while I drink once, for I cannot 
permit the son in his sober senses to be witness to the 
intoxication of his father." He had to help to entertain 
the neighbouring squires, who looked upon Houghton as 
" Liberty Hall," and frequently sought the boon com- 
panionship of its owner. But when his father died he soon 
tired of cattle sales and country pleasures and excesses, and 
set his mind on a public career. 

When the new hall arose where the old one had stood, 
far different gatherings to those of the old days were seen 
at Houghton. As the home of the great minister, Houghton 
Hall became famous for its entertainments, and Sir Robert 
numbered among his guests most of the leading men of the 
kingdom and the official representatives of other countries. 
** Bull-baiting was one of the amusements carried on, on a 
large space of grass south of the house, which still shows 
remains of the arrangements requisite for the sport." The 
festivities, too, were often worthy of the days of the old 
squire. *' The large punch glasses, ten or twelve inches 
high, with diameter in proportion, which are now ranged 
innocently on the shelves of the china room, bring visions 
of lavish feasts. There is a strange little room at the back 
of the servants' hall, opening out of it by a door close to 
the chimney, called the Sots' Hole, where the drunken 
footmen were thrown to recover themselves, and to become 
fitted anew to assist their scarcely more sober masters." ^ 

But of necessity Sir Robert had to spend the greater 
part of his time in London; and it was not until he was 
driven from office that he was able to take his ease at his 
beautiful country home and enjoy himself among his pictures. 
Horace Walpole, in one of his letters, says : *' My lord ( Sir 
^ Some Norfolk Worthies, by the late Mrs Herbert Jones. 



Norfolk 

Robert was then the Earl of Orford) is going to furnish 
and hang the picture gallery. Who could ever suspect any 
connection between painting and the wilds of Norfolk ? . . . 
The Domenichino is delightful. My father is as much 
transported with it as I am. It is hung in the gallery, 
where are all his most capital pictures, and he himself thinks 
it beats all but the Guidos. The gallery was illuminated : 
it is incredible what a magnificent appearance it made. 
There were sixty-four candles, which showed all the 
pictures to great advantage." Many old friends came to 
cheer his declining days, among them a very old clergyman 
from Walsingham, who had been one of his first school- 
masters. The ex-Prime Minister asked him why he had 
never come to see him when he was in power ; and the old 
man said : " I knew that you were surrounded with so 
many petitions asking preferment, and that you had done so 
much for Norfolk people, that I did not wish to intrude. 
But I always inquired how Robin went on, and was satis- 
fied with your proceedings." The Earl of Orford did not 
die at Houghton, but in London, and his body was brought 
here for burial. It lies in a vault in the village church of 
St Martin, where other representatives of the family are 
interred ; but strangely enough no inscription indicates the 
situation of his tomb. 

Cyclists who select this route from Dereham to Lynn 
may make it include Sandringham, which is only a few 
miles from Houghton ; or they may, instead of journeying 
from Fakenham to Lynn, strike out northward from the 
former town and, riding through Walsingham, arrive at 
Wells or Holkham Hall. These are places 1 have already 
dealt with. The journey from Fikenham to Wells may 
also be made by train. 



132 




NORWICH TO AYLSHAM, BLICKLING, AND CROMER. 



ITINERARY THE TENTH 
IN JNNE BOLETN'S COUNTRT 



NORWICH TO AYLSHAM, BLICKLING, AND 
CROMER 

Aylsham — Blickling Hall — The History of the Manor — The Boleyns 
— Traditions concerning Anne Boleyn — The Blickling Library 
— Blickling Church — Blickling Ghosts — On to Cromer. 

Nearly four hundred years have passed since Anne Bullen 
or Boleyn, little dreaming of the stormy life and sad fate 
in store for her, wandered through the leafy lanes of Ayls- 
ham and Blickling ; but the country folk of the district 
would have us believe that even now she has not wholly 
deserted the scenes amid which she spent her childhood. 
There is an old avenue of trees in the park at Blickling 
down which, once a year, a coach drawn by headless horses 
is driven by a headless coachman, and in it is seated, her 
head in her lap, a woman who was once a queen.^ But she 
cannot now enter the portals of her old home, for the manor 
house built by Sir Nicholas Dagworth at the end of the 
14th century, and afterwards occupied by Sir Geoffrey 
Boleyn, a mercer and Lord Mayor of London, has wholly 
disappeared. In its place has risen a house which is one 
of the glories of Norfolk and of England — the beautiful 
Jacobean mansion, Blickling Hall. No one who visits 
Norfolk should leave the county without seeing this fine 
old home of the Marquesses of Lothian. The road from 

^ Strange how these old ghost stories linger on in the country ! 
See the story of the haunting of Doleswood by Dame Paulet. 
(" Hampshire" in " Dent's County Guides." — Ed.) 



Norfolk 

Norwich to Blickling is a very pleasant one, and the dis- 
tance little more than twelve miles. There are no hills 
sufficiently steep to trouble the cyclist, who, when he has 
exhausted the delights of the village and hall, may, instead 
of returning to Norwich, ride on by way of Gunton and 
Roughton Heath to Cromer. If you are not a cyclist you 
may take the train to Aylsham. You will then have about 
a mile-and-a-halPs walk to the Hall. 

Leaving Norwich by the old Magdalen Street, near the 
end of which are some traces of the city walls, and making 
your way through suburban Catton, you come, about two 
miles from the city, to a branching of the road where, by 
taking the right-hand road, you find yourself on the high- 
way from Norwich to Aylsham and Cromer. The villages 
passed through before Aylsham is reached are Horsham St 
Faith, Newton St Faith, Hevingham, and Marsham ; but 
although the scenery about and between these hamlets is 
generally pleasing, and some charming " bits " are often met 
with, there is not much to delay you. Marsham is said to 
have produced the rebellious Titus Oates, but upon what 
grounds the assertion is based, I cannot say. Brampton, 
which adjoins Marsham, but lies a little to the right of 
the road, was the scene of a big find of sepulchral 
urns. The discovery was investigated by Sir Thomas 
Browne, and may have suggested the writing of his essay 
on " Urn Burial." Since the days of the famous Norwich 
worthy, a large number of urns have been unearthed in the 
neighbourhood. 

In Norfolk there are few more pleasantly situated towns 
than Aylsham. It stands on the banks of the Bure, 
(which is navigable as far as here to the wherries so 
familiar to voyagers on the inland waterways of East 
Anglia,) and in the midst of a well wooded district. 
At one time the court of the Duchy of Lancaster was 
held here ; and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, 
built the parish church. It is a fine church — but Norfolk 
is so full of fine churches that you take for granted that 

134 



In Anne Boleyn s Country 

Aylsham possesses a worthy one. Some good brasses 
will Interest the antiquary ; but most people will be more 
attracted by the old stained glass windows, and the 
ancient font which is adorned with emblems of the 
Passion and the Evangelists and the arms of the families 
of Gaunt, Erpingham, Morley, and Bourchier. Outside 
the church is a curious epitaph to Humphrey Repton, the 




celebrated landscape gardener to whom Norfolk is indebted 
for not a little of its loveliness. 

The mile-and-a-half walk or ride from Aylsham to 
Blickling is along a road overshadowed by oaks and 
beeches, and such oaks and beeches as are delightful to 
look upon. Blickling Church soon comes in sight to 
the right of the road, and directly afterwards you stand 
before one of the stateliest of the " stately homes of 
England." Until its west front comes into full view 
little is seen of Blickling Hall, for it is hidden from 
you as you approach from Aylsham by the church. 



Norfolk 

the rectory, and the surrounding trees. So the sight of it 
comes as a surprise, and the impression made is a lasting one. 
The old hall stands upon ground which has often been 
trodden by the feet of men and women whose names 
are big in history; and as you cross the moat-bridge, 
or ascend the famous dark oak staircase, you may attain 
to a mood in which it would scarcely cause surprise 
if a company of silent spectres appeared in the haunts 
that, while in the flesh, they knew so well. Indeed, 
it is not difficult to imagine that these famous men and 
women are still alive, for they seem to make their pre- 
sence felt in Blickling Hall, and the eye that sees what 
is not catches glimpses of them in the old halls and 
corridors. A Norman bishop, who was chaplain to the 
Conqueror, rubs shoulders with a London knight whose 
descendant, the beautiful Anne Boleyn, her face bearing 
the marks of pride and pain, leans on the arm of a 
portly English king. Kings, queens, and ambassadors, 
a Lord Chief Justice, soldier knights from Agincourt, 
all join in the phantom procession ; whilst somewhere in 
the background is the shadowy form of a warrior king 
who held his court at Blickling nearly a thousand years 
ago. 

A complete list of the holders of the manor of Blickling 
would be dull reading ; but some of its lords and ladies 
have played such great parts in their day that it may be 
of interest to give a short account of its history. Even 
now the inhabitants of the district can point out the 
spot, in the old Manor meadow, about a mile from the 
hall, where the home of King Harold stood. After 
the battle of Hastings, the Conqueror bestowed the 
manor upon his chaplain. Bishop Herfast, and it became 
a favourite retreat of the bishops of Thetford and, after 
the removal of the see, of Norwich. In the fourteenth 
century a portion of it came into the possession of Sir 
Nicholas Dagworth, who built himself a house here. Of 
this house there are now no traces ; but we know that 
136 



In Anne Boleyns Country 

it was In turn occupied by Sir Thomas Erplngham 
and Sir John FastolfF, whose names are inseparably 
associated with the history of the county. In 1459 Sir 
John FastolfF sold the estate to Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, 
whose grandson, Viscount Rochfort, was the father of 
Anne Boleyn. His successor, Sir James Boleyn, dis- 
posed of it to Sir John Clere, whose heir was obliged 
to sell it to Sir Henry Hobart, a Lord Chief Justice of 
England. It was this Sir Henry Hobart who pulled 
down the old manor house of Sir Nicholas Dagworth and 
commenced the building of the present hall, which was 
completed by his son, who entertained Charles II. here. 
In 1746 the fifth baronet was created Earl of Bucking- 
hamshire. The daughter of the second earl married, in 
1793, the sixth Marquess of Lothian and inherited the 
estate, which has since been the seat of the Marquesses of 
Lothian. 

Such is the history of the manor of Blickling. As to 
the Boleyns, the family seems to have had a French origin 
and to have settled in Norfolk several generations before 
the birth of the ill-starred Anne. We do not hear much 
about them until Thomas Boleyn, of Salle, Norfolk, 
married Anna, a daughter of Sir John Bracton, and 
bound his eldest son Geoffrey apprentice to a London 
mercer. This Geoffrey became a very prosperous London 
citizen and was Lord Mayor in 1457. That he was a 
man of considerable influence may be assumed from the 
fact that he was able to maintain peace between the hostile 
partisans of York and Lancaster during the congress held 
in his jurisdiction. He married Anna, daughter of the 
lord of Hoo and Hastings, and, as I have said, purchased 
Blickling from Sir John Fastolff. His grandson. Sir 
Thomas Boleyn, afterwards Viscount Rochfort, married 
Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the famous Earl of 
Surrey who became Duke of Norfolk. This Sir Thomas 
was the father of Anne Boleyn. Three places claim to 
be her birthplace — Hever Castle In Kent, Rochfort Hall 

137 



Norfolk 



in Essex, and Blickling. Little evidence exists in support 
of these claims ; but Sir Henry Spelman, a Norfolk man 
who lived in the time of Elizabeth ; Blomfield, the Norfolk 
historian ; and the letters of the Earl of Buckinghamshire 
all state that Anne was born at Blickling. Whether it 
was so or not is a question which will probably remain for 
ever unanswered ; but we know that Anne spent some years 
of her childhood at her father's Norfolk home. There 



m^_ 




\ 






married to 
The only 



is a historical tradition, too, that she was 

the King here, and Blomfield says it is true. 

evidence bearing upon this is found in the words of 

Stephenson, a Norfolk poet who wrote some lines to 

commemorate the visit to Blickling of Charles II. and 

his queen, Catherine of Braganza. He says that — 

"BUckHng two monarchs and two queens has seen ; 
One king fetched hence, another brought a queen ; " 

but this is by no means conclusive. Indeed, unless we 
discredit the statements of Wyatt, there is no reason to 
doubt that the marriage took place at Whitehall. 

Another tradition which, until a few years ago, had a 
138 



In Anne Boleyn s Country 

firm hold upon the neighbourhood of Blickling was that 
after Anne's execution her remains were secretly removed 
by night from the Tower Church and brought to Salle 
Church, the ancient burial-place of the Boleyns. This 
church, which is about six miles from Blickling Hall, con- 
tains a great number of brasses, among them some to the 
Boleyns, who, as we have seen, were lords of the manor. 
Miss Agnes Strickland, in her Lives of the Queens of Eng- 
land, finds confirmation of the tradition in the words with 
which Wyatt closes his account of the queen's death. 
" God," he says, " provided for her corpse sacred burial, 
even in a place as it were consecrate to innocence," words 
that, as Miss Strickland suggests, could scarcely apply to a 
burial in the Tower Church without religious rites. Visitors 
to Salle used to be shown a plain black marble slab, 
without inscription, in the church, and were told that this 
was Anne Boleyn's tomb. Some years ago, however, the 
slab was taken up and nothing found beneath it to witness 
to the truth of the strange tradition. Curiously enough, a 
similar black monument in the church of Horndon-on-the- 
Hill, in Essex, was said to mark the burial-place of the 
murdered queen. 

The famous library at Blickling, containing over 1 2,000 
volumes, was got together by Mattaire for Sir Richard 
Ellis, who bequeathed it to an ancestor of its present owner. 
It is contained in an elaborately decorated room 127 feet 
long. Among its treasures, the rarest of which are kept 
under lock and key, are the first printed Latin Bible, dated 
1462, "The Blickling MS," dated 971, three fifteenth 
century books of Hours, a French MS. Bible of the 
thirteenth century, a Latin MS. Psalter, believed to be a 
thousand years old ; Aldine publications from 1 490 to 
1 590, and an old Latin MS. Bible containing the auto- 
graphs of the Duke of Wellington, inscribed in 1819, and 
the Princess of Wales, added in 1888. In an adjoining 
room are two portraits by Gainsborough, and some tapestry 
representing Peter the Great and the Battle of Pultowa, 

139 



Norfolk 

presented by the Empress Catherine to the second Earl of 
Buckinghamshire when he was ambassador at St Petersburg. 
There are statues of Anne Boleyn and Queen Elizabeth in 
the Hall, and, in addition to some fine old family portraits, 
there are preserved in a cabinet some draperies, gowns, 
nightcaps, and toilet necessaries which belonged to Anne. 
A stone chimney-piece in the morning-room was originally 
a window arch at Sir John FastolfF's stronghold, Caister 
Castle. 

Blickling Park and gardens are almost as famous as the 
Hall. A few years ago a violent gale wrought havoc 
among the Blickling oaks, hundreds of which were laid 
low ; but fine oaks are so plentiful here that they are 
scarcely missed, and beautiful beeches and birches draw 
away the eye from the gaps left by the fallen trees. A 
mile-long lake of crescent shape skirts the lawns and wood- 
lands, and, with the fallow deer which haunt its shores, 
adds much to the beauty of the park. There is a pyramidal 
mausoleum about half-a-mile from the Hall, containing the 
remains of the late Earl of Buckinghamshire and his two 
wives. Of it the Rev. A. H. Malan, to whose description 
of the Hall and grounds I am indebted for some of my 
information, says it is " Of sombre and depressing aspect, 
and shunned by all things living, except, it may be, one or 
two of those long-eared owls which delight in densest 
shade." Some statues which formerly adorned the terraces 
of Oxnead Hall, a neighbouring mansion of noble propor- 
tions in which Charles II. was entertained by one of the 
Pastons, are now preserved in the park. Of the Blickling 
ghosts, which are still believed in by some of the villagers, 
many stories are told ; but of that of Sir Thomas Boleyn, 
who, in a chariot drawn by headless horses, has, as a 
penance, to cross in a night forty county bridges, the most 
amazing statement I have come across is that he is always 
pursued by a horde of terrible fiends who, according to a 
recent writer, " are allowed a night's holiday by their 
master, Auld Reekie ! " 
140 



/;/ Anne Boleyns Country 

Blickling Church, although ancient, has been so restored 
that it retains few evidences of its antiquity ; but it contains 
several brassevS, monuments, and memorial windows. A 
fine monument is that to the memory of the eighth Marquis 
of Lothian, which is the work of Mr G. F. Watts, R.A. 
One of the brasses represents Sir Nicholas Dagworth in full 
armour ; another, Anne A' Wode with twins in her arms ; 
and a third is to Anna Boleyn, an infant daughter of 
William Boleyn, who died in 1479. There is also an 
oak chest about four hundred years old, bearing the inscrip- 
tion : 

" Maystyr Adam Ilee mad ys chyst and Robert Filipis payed yer 
for, God have mercy on yar soules." 

If you care to make Aylsham your headquarters for a 
while before returning to Norwich or journeying on to 
Cromer, there are several places of interest in the neighbour- 
hood which will call for your attention. Among these 
are Wolterton Hall, built by Horace Walpole during the 
first half of the eighteenth century ; Oxnead Hall, erected 
by Clement Paston in the sixteenth century, and the ruined 
churches of Antingham and Wolterton. 

The cyclist who extends his tour to Cromer must ride 
carefully over the first few miles out of Aylsham, for 
there are one or two dangerous turnings. He will pass 
through Ingworth and by its water-mill, and when about 
four miles from Aylsham will come in sight of Gunton 
Park, in which stands the country house of Lord Suffield. 
A few miles further on he will enter upon Roughton 
Heath, after crossing which he will be in the midst of a 
district described at length in the tour, " By the Wild 
North Sea." 



141 



ITINERARY THE ELEVENTH 

THE BROADLAND 

" A COUNTRY of green meadows and slow lowland streams, 
where a man may lie beside a tuft of willows and dream 
marvellously." These words of the author of ** Scholar- 
Gipsies " were written to describe a district not far from 
the banks of the Tweed, but they may fitly be applied to 
the Norfolk Broadland. For the Broadland is a " country 
of green meadows"; its rivers are the laziest of lowland 
streams ; and one of its chief charms is that it is a place 
where a man may *' dream marvellously." 

To do anything like justice to the beauty of Broadland 
is no easy task, even though, as in my own case, one has 
been familiar with the district's rivers, broads, and marshes 
from his earliest days. At best, I can only hope to 
convey vague impressions, for much of the charm and 
loveliness of Broadland scenery is indefinable and inde- 
scribable. Yet by relating some of my own impressions 
of the district I may be able to give some idea of its 
character and inhabitants. 

As I have said, from my earliest years I have spent the 
greater part of my days in Broadland. From the window 
of the house in which I was born I could watch the herons 
and lapwings on the water-meadows, the marshmen at their 
dyke-drawing and eel-fishing, and the glorious sunsets 
which the river reflected ere white mists rose and covered 
water and meadow with a drifting fleecy pall. As a 
schoolboy I spent my holidays in rowing a crazy old boat 
on the Waveney, seeking the nests of the river warblers in 
the reed beds, or skating over wide stretches of flooded 
142 



The Broadland 

and frozen marsh. Since then I have devoted many 
days and nights to exploring the quiet nooks and corners, 
reed-girt lagoons, and winding rivers ; accompanying the 
water-bailiff on his nightly rounds, the eel-catcher to his 
setts and babbing, and the marshmen to the haunts of the 
redshanks and moor-hens. With field-glass rather than 
gun I have sought and followed the birds of the marshes, 
the sedge warblers of the riversides, the reed warblers of 
the broads, the grasshopper warblers of the lush meadow- 
lands. Night has come upon me as I sat in the small 
cabin of some fisherman's house-boat, watching the bream- 
bubbles rise from the bed of a creek, and listening to the 
harsh crowing of cock pheasants in the grass, the rustling 
of the rats in the hovers, the calling of the curlews, and 
the twittering and trilling of the reed birds. Dawn has 
found me among the ooze flats of the tidal waters, where 
the waders come to feed at the fall of the tide. In summer 
I have gathered wild orchids, bog-beans, and sundews in 
marshes where they were rooted in golden bog-mosses, and 
half hidden by luxuriant swamp grasses, while all around 
me brilliant-hued dragon-flies have been darting, and " five 
spotted burnets " hovering in the sunlight. From dawn 
till dusk of summer days, birds, butterflies, and flowers have 
been my only companions, and from dusk till dawn the 
only voices I have heard have been the wild-life voices 
of the lowland meadows and streams. And in winter, 
when clouds of starlings darken the already lowering, snow- 
laden sky, when flocks of plovers settle on the marshes, 
and many strange bird-voices are heard among the familiar 
ones of river and fen, the fascination of the Broadland 
has been so great that not all the biting winds and threatened 
storms have been enough to keep me from the shores of 
the broads and rivers. 

There are people who will not admit that marshland 
scenery has either charm or beauty. They cannot under- 
stand how Borrow was able to " draw more poetry from a 
widespreading marsh with its straggling rushes than from 

143 



Norfolk 

the most beautiful scenery, and would stand and look at it 
with rapture " ; nor can they appreciate the feelings of 
Charles Kingsley when he wrote of the fens : " They 
have a beauty as of the sea, of boundless expanse and 
freedom," and who also said : " Overhead the arch of 
heaven spread more ample than elsewhere, as over the sea ; 
and that vastness gave, and still gives, such cloudlands, 
such sunrises, such sunsets, as can be seen nowhere else 
within these isles." But it is a mistake to look upon the 
Broadland as simply a vast level expanse with 

" Low belts of rushes, ragged with the blast, 
Lagoons of marish reddening with the west "; 

or as a land consisting wholly 

" Of water-reeds with plumy heads. 
Straight roads with dykes on either hand, 
And miles on miles of pasture land." 

There is plenty of this kind of scenery, and close acquaint- 
ance with it reveals much that makes it far from monoton- 
ous and lonesome ; but there are also wood-girt broads in 
which trees are mirrored ; quaint old-world villages with 
thatch-roofed churches and cottages straggling along the 
banks of the streams ; upper reaches where the rivers wind 
around the borders of gorsey heathlands and below bosky 
hangers, and flow beneath the bridges and by the gardens 
of sleepy red-roofed towns ; and meres, the waters of 
which remain almost undisturbed while little more than a 
ridge of sandhills divides them from the roaring surf-white 
sea. On the borders of the marshes, too, and often with 
their roots washed by the Broadland streams, are woods 
and copses where squirrels gambol, wood doves croon, 
sparrow-hawks nest, jays screech, woodpeckers yike, and 
the willow warblers come as soon as they arrive on our 
shores. Here, in the clearings, the woodmen work in 
their brushwood huts, making hurdles for the farmer and 
hoops for the cooper, plying their " hooks " upon the ash 
and hazel wands to the music of the woodland birds. 
144 



The Broadland 

All day long, while cruising in Broadland, you glide 
through a succession of reposeful scenes, more than delight- 
ful to you if you have just left thronged city streets or 
abandoned the strenuous pleasure-seeking of some fashion- 
able resort ; and when night approaches, and your yacht 
is anchored on some placid broad or moored by some reedy 
creek, you are seldom anxious to retire to your cabin and 
leave the rivers to the leaping fish, the marshes to the 
night-hawking churn-owl, the riverside to the bream- 
catching otter, and the dykesides to the rustling voles and 
fluttering moths. You are more likely to cast loose your 
dingy and row up some quiet creek, where the reeds 
whisper stories which in the daytime were left untold ; or 
to step ashore and stroll along the " wall," or across the 
marshes, in the moonlight. Then you feel a sense of kin- 
ship with the sedge warblers chuckling in the reeds, the 
pheasants crowing in the grass, the hares leaping from 
their forms in the dry ronds, and the restless water-fowl 
of the riverside. The fluctuations of the money market 
are forgotten while you interest yourself in the fortunes 
of some eel-catcher babbing with a bunch of worsted- 
threaded worms ; the cries of some bird whose nest has 
been raided by a prowling stoat, has more immediate 
appeal to you than the death-throes of an expiring 
nation ; and you feel no inclination to seek your cabin 
even when the ** dream draperies " of mist spread a white 
coverlet over land and water. The Broadland nights are 
more beautiful than the Broadland days. 

I have referred to the bird-life of this bird-haunted 
district of the most " ornithologically favoured " county in 
England. It will not be out of place if I draw attention 
to the Broadland wild flowers. 

Many of the Norfolk marshes, and especially those 
known as "rush marshes" — a name which indicates that 
they are not wholly reclaimed from their original swampi- 
ness — are veritable wild flower gardens. In them grow 
not only marsh, spotted, and green-winged orchises, but 

K 145 



Norfolk 

lovely marsh helleborines, the beautiful pink-belled bog- 
bean, the delicate bog pimpernel, the downy-leaved marsli 
St John's- wort, and the scarce marsh pea. Tall willow- 
herbs, cat valerians, and purple loosestrifes deck the river- 
sides and dykesides ; moneywort trails around the borders 
of the alder carrs ; and marsh cinquefoil and red rattle 
grow amid the fragrant marsh hay. In the dykes which 
intersect the water-meadows many flowers are to be found 
which have scarcely any other habitat in England, now 
that the fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire have 
been transformed into dry pastures and fruitful cornfields. 
Many kinds of water crowfoot deck the surface of the 
dykes with snow-white blossoms, frogbits display their 
three-petalled flowers and kidney-shaped leaves, water 
violets send up their whorled flower-spikes, and the greater 
spearwort blooms amid the reeds and sedges. The curious 
water-soldier {^Stratiotes aloides) almost chokes up some 
of the dykes in summer, when its aloe-like leaf-clusters 
rise from the oozy dyke-beds; bladderworts display their 
yellow snapdragon-shaped blossoms, borne up on buoyant 
insect-catching vesicles ; aromatic sweet sedge in places 
overpowers the fragrance of the meadow-sweet ; and here 
and there, in localities not to be indicated, but which the 
botanist may discover in his rambles, grows that rare old 
fenland plant the marsh sowthistle [Sonchus palustris). 
These are only a few of the hundreds of wild flowers 
which delight your eye in Broadland — a district richer in 
native floral life than any other in England. 

During the days and nights I have spent among the 
marshes, homesteads, and waterways of the Broadland, I 
have made many friends — such friends as no lover or 
student of wild-life could fail to appreciate. For they 
are men who have spent their lives on the rivers and 
marshes, gaining a livelihood by the use of net, eel-spear, 
and gun. Everyone of them is a naturalist — a naturalist 
who has learnt what he knows from nature instead of 
books. Unfortunately, they belong to a vanishing race. 
146 



The Broadland 

Acts for the preservation of fish and protection of wild 
birds — necessary acts, as even the men themselves admit — 
have compelled them to resort to other means of gaining a 
living than were once sufficient for them. Still, they 
have not yet wholly disappeared, and here and there you 
may meet with one of them. To realise the kind of life 
they led in the " pre-protection " days, you cannot do 
better than turn to the pages of a book published in 1848 
by the Rev. Richard Lubbock, and entitled *' Observations 
on the Fauna of Norfolk." Here is found a graphic 
description of one of the old-time broadsmen. It is 
somewhat lengthy, but worth reproducing. Mr Lubbock 
writes : — 

" When I first visited the broads I found here and there 
an occupant squatted down, as the Americans would call it, 
on the verge of a pool, who relied almost entirely on shoot- 
ing and fishing for the support of his wife and family, and 
lived in a truly primitive manner. I particularly remember 
one hero of this description. * Our broad,' as he always 
called the extensive pool by which his cottage stood, was 
his microcosm — his world ; the islands in it were his 
Gardens of the Hesperides — its opposite extremity his 
Ultima Thule. Wherever his thoughts wandered, they 
could not get beyond the circle of his beloved lake ; 
indeed, I never knew them aberrant but once, when he 
informed me, with a doubting air, that he had sent his wife 
and his two eldest children to a fair at a country village 
two miles off, that their ideas might expand by travel : as 
he sagely observed, they had never been away from * our 
broad.' I went into his house at the dinner hour, and 
found the whole party going to fall to most thankfully upon 
a roasted herring gull, killed, of course, on * our broad.' 
His life presented no vicissitudes but an alternation of marsh 
employment. In winter, after his day's reed - cutting, he 
might be regularly found posted at nightfall, waiting for the 
flight of fowl, or paddling after them on the open water. 
With the first warm days of February he launched his fleet 

147 



Norfolk 

of trimmers, pike finding a ready sale at his own door to 
those who bought them to sell again in the Norwich market. 
As soon as the pike had spawned and were out of season, 
the eels began to occupy his attention, and lapwings' eggs 
to be diligently sought for. In the end of April, the island 
in his watery domain was frequently visited for the sake of 
shooting the ruffs which resorted thither on their first arrival. 
As the days grew longer and hotter, he might be found 
searching, in some smaller pools near his house, for the 
shoals of tench as they commenced spawning. Yet a little 
longer and he began marsh-mowing, his gun always laid 
ready upon his coat, in case flappers should be met with. 
By the middle of August teal came to a wet corner near 
his cottage, snipes began to arrive, and he was often called 
upon to exercise his vocal powers on the curlews that passed 
to and fro. By the end of September good snipe shooting 
was generally to be met with in his neighbourhood ; and 
his accurate knowledge of the marshes, his unassuming good 
humour, and zeal in providing sport for those who employed 
him, made him very much sought after as a sporting guide 
by snipe shots and fishermen ; and his knowledge of the 
habits of different birds enabled him to give useful informa- 
tion to those who collected them." 

One of the few men to whom the above description might 
very well apply is Fuller, the old broadsman who spends 
the greater part of the year in his little house-boat on Rock- 
land Broad. He it is of whom Mr Christopher Davies 
has written in his Norfolk Broads and Ri'vers. He still 
leads the life of an old-time water-gipsy, and the man is 
not living who possesses a sufliciently persuasive tongue to 
cause him to abandon it. The men whom you come most 
in contact with, however, are the wherrymen, who are far 
more numerous than gunners or eel-catchers. They are 
no summer-season voyagers, much in evidence when the 
sun shines, but lost sight of as soon as stormy weather sets 
in. All through the year their large-sailed wherries, painted 
in barbaric brilliant hues, cruise up and down the rivers, be- 
148 



The Broadland 

tween the ports and the inland towns. Up streams which 
seem scarcely navigable to a four-ton yacht they make their 
way, either gliding steadily before the breeze or pushed for- 
ward by the men on board with their long quants ; and at 
times their sails brush the feathery reed tops and their hulls 
are dusted with the pollen of the riverside wild flowers. To 
the yachtsman who encounters the wherryman on a sunny 
summer day, when the ronds are full of coots and moor-hens 
and the warblers sing incessantly in the reed beds, it may 
seem that his life is an enviable one ; but the yachtsman 
does not see him in winter, when the warblers are gone, the 
reed plumes toss wildly in the wind, and a dun sky lowers 
upon the lowlands. Then icy blasts, against which even 
the strong-winged herons fight in vain, sweep across the 
marshes, numbing the wherryman to the bones and freezing 
his breath upon his beard. But so long as the rivers are 
"open" he keeps on quanting and sailing; and it is only 
when keen night-frosts have fettered the inland waters, and 
he can no longer break his way up or down the rivers or 
across the broads, that he gets a holiday. Then, leaving 
his wherry ice-bound at some staithe or marshside mooring, 
he idles for a while, or dons his " pattens " and skates upon 
the frozen meres. 

Of late years the Norfolk wherrymen have been put to 
a great deal of inconvenience by the unskilful navigation 
of some of the pleasure-seekers, who, relying on a scanty 
knowledge of yacht-sailing, cruise in the Broadland un- 
assisted by regular boatmen. They have proved themselves 
a long-suffering, patient race, who, so long as they are 
treated with civility and their progress not unnecessarily 
hindered, are usually willing to give good advice and render 
valuable assistance to yachtsmen and others in difficulty. 
Among them are many entertaining characters, whom it 
is a pleasure to encounter at some marshland staithe or 
ferry inn, and listen to when they are in a garrulous and 
reminiscent mood. 



149 



ITINERARY THE TWELFTH 

DOWN THE TARE FROM NORWICH TO 
REEDHAM AND YARMOUTH 

The Yare — Postwick Grove — Bramerton Wood's End — The Broad- 
land Windmills — Surlingham Broad and Ferry — Wild-fowl 
Decoying — Rockland Broad — Hardley Cross — The Chet — 
Loddon and its Neighbourhood — Reedham — The Murder of 
Lothbrock — Reedham Marshes — An Old Estuary — Yarmouth. 

There are many places in Broadland — such as Norwich, 
Wroxham, Yarmouth, Oulton, and Lowestoft — where 
yachts and wherries may be hired ; and as the parties which 
engage them usually make the yacht-letter's yard the starting- 
point of their cruising, it is impossible to describe any route 
which all of them can follow. An attempt is therefore 
made to indicate a series of cruises, each complete in itself, 
which you may undertake in varying succession, and which 
will conduct you to all the principal broads and places of 
interest in Broadland. It must be understood, however, 
that in the space available for this purpose, it is useless to 
attempt to describe anything like all the interesting features 
of scenery, types of broadsmen, wild-life, etc., appertaining 
to each cruise, though as much as possible concerning these 
subjects is introduced into the river-itineraries as a whole. 
Thus, if in describing a trip up the Bure reference is made 
to the eel-catchers and their methods on that river, it must 
not be assumed that these men are not to be met with, and 
their methods observed on the other Broadland waterways. 
There are eel-catchers almost everywhere in Broadland, 
and if special attention is drawn to them in a description of 
150 



Doivn the Yare to Yarmouth 

the Bure, it is simply because they are most numerous on 
that river, and to avoid wearisome repetition. 

Several of the road and rail routes by which you may 
acquaint yourself with the scenery of Norfolk have their 
starting-point at Norwich, and from the same grand old 
city you may set out on your Broadland cruising. A 
pleasant trip is that from Norwich to Yarmouth by the river 
Yare. The Wensum, upon the banks of which the Nor- 
folk capital stands, joins its waters with those of the Yare 
just below the city, and from that point downwards the 
united rivers are known as the Yare. To the minds of 
many people the Yare is the most delightful of the Norfolk 
waterways ; it certainly flows through some of the prettiest 
scenery in the county. About three miles from the Carrow 
Bridge, which adjoins the enormous works of Messrs 
Colman, is Postwick Grove, part of a parish which belongs 
almost entirely to the Earl of Rosebery, to whose father a 
mural brass and memorial window are erected in the village 
church. This is one of the most charming spots on the 
river ; but if from the commencement to the end of your 
cruising you step ashore to explore every pretty spot you 
come across your voyaging is likely to be as protracted as 
that of the Flying Dutchman. So you will do well to sail 
on to Bramerton Wood's End, another lovely bit of scenery, 
upon which the eyes of navigators long familiar with the river 
love to look. Not far from here is the first pumping mill 
met with in descending the Yare. It is a red " skeleton " 
windmill on the right bank. Such windmills are among 
the most familiar objects on the marshlands, and you are 
soon struck with the number of them dotted along the banks 
of the rivers. Most of them are more than a century old ; 
many are double that age ; and they are gradually giving place 
to less picturesque steam pumping stations, which more speedily 
clear the dykes of flood-water. They have done good 
work, in their time, these gaunt old windmills; and even 
now, on a breezy morning after heavy rains have filled the 
dykes, it is a pleasant sight to see their sails whirling above 

15^ 



Norfolk 

the river walls. On such a morning you may perhaps 
choose to make a close inspection of one of them. The 
millman in charge is usually quite willing to aid anyone who 
wishes to do this ; and, in addition to explaining the work- 
ing of the mill, will point out the swallows' nests in the 
upper storeys. He may, too, have a curious or gruesome 
tale to tell about his old mill, for the wooden wheels within 
are dangerous to approach when the sails are whirling — as 
more than one unfortunate millman has discovered — and 
they make weird noises on stormy nights. So it is not 
strange that more than one ghost story is associated with 
these marshland windmills, and that even now some of the 
older and disused ones have an uncanny reputation. The 
first mill on the Yare, however, is a slight structure 
compared with most of those which you will see around 
Reedham. 

If you are interested in geology you may, in spite of what 
has been said about too frequently going ashore, be inclined, 
while in the neighbourhood of Bramerton, to visit the spot 
where the Norwich Crag, here examined by the members 
of the British Association, is to be seen. This crag, for 
years the subject of much discussion as to its claim to be 
considered a distinct geological division, is rich in fossils, 
and if you examine it at Bramerton you will have little 
trouble in finding, at least, a number of shells. 

A little more than two miles from Bramerton is Sur- 
lingham Ferry, towards which the river winds in a manner 
worthy of the upper waters of the Waveney. Tacking 
down the winding reaches the yachtsman whose attention is 
not taken up with the manoeuvring of his craft, has ample 
opportunities for admiring the silvery willows and dwarf 
white poplars which relieve the monotony of the swampy 
lands on either side of the stream ; and the purple spikes of 
loosestrife, giant willow-herbs, and snow-white bindweeds 
which deck the banks. Beyond these, herds of cattle graze 
on meadows covered with buttercups ; still further back, on 
the uplands behind the marsh farms, pleasant country homes 

'52 



Doivn the Yare to Yarmouth 

are embowered in groves of trees. Surlingham Ferry is 
about six miles from Norwich, and the Ferry Inn is a 
favourite resort of anglers. So, too, is Coldham Hall, 
another inn some two miles further down the river. Indeed, 
the waters about here are famous for their bream, roach, 
perch, and pike fishing. Even if you have no inclination to 
angle, you will do well to make the acquaintance of Catch- 
pole, the Yare Hotel boatman, and seek his guidance to that 
naturalists' paradise, Surlingham Broad. Though one of 
the smaller of the Norfolk lagoons, and said to be gradually 
growing smaller owing to the luxuriance of its aquatic plants, 
it is still a fair-sized sheet of water, and a four-ton yacht can, 
with care, be sailed almost all over it. As you descend the 
river you may enter the broad by Birch Creek, a channel a 
little above the Yare Hotel, and emerge from it through 
Surlingham Fleet. There is a curious ice-house on its 
bank, in which ice from the surface of the broad is 
stored. You will be able to judge what a glorious place 
this broad is for the flight-shooter, who conceals himself in 
its reed-fringed creeks and dykes on winter nights. Ento- 
mologists often visit Surlingham on account of the abundant 
insect-life in its hovers, swamps, and reed beds. As to 
the bird-life of the district there is no better authority than 
Catchpole, who has spent his life here, and in the shooting 
season is seldom abroad without his dog and gun. 

Wild-fowl decoying by means of decoy pipes is little 
practised now, mainly because places suitable for the 
working of pipes are few and far between. There is a 
decoy at Brundall, belonging to a well-known Norwich 
citizen who has a country house here ; but it is seldom 
used, and even if you obtain permission to visit it you will 
scarcely be able to appreciate the interesting method of 
wild-fowl capture. To see decoying on any considerable 
scale you must visit Fritton Lake, or Borough Fen Decoy, 
and you must go in winter, for it is then only that the 
fowl settle on the pools in sufficient quantities to tempt 
the decoyman to use his pipes. As a great many people 



Norfolk 

have never seen a decoy worked a few further remarks 
on the subject of decoying may not be unacceptable. 



Wild-Fowl Decoying. 

Antiquaries tell us that wild-fowl decoying was practised 
so long ago as the year 3000 B.C., and antiquaries must be 
left to prove the truth of their statement. There is better 
reason for believing that the first decoy ever built in Eng- 
land was planned and 
erected at Waxham 
Norfolk by Sir 



in 

William Wodehouse in 
the reign of James I. 
A better district for 
such an experiment 
could not have been 
selected. Sir Thomas 
Browne, writing at 
Norwich in the middle 
of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, attributed the 
abundance of teal on 
the local waterways to 
the presence of decoys. 
This is explained by the fact that wherever there is a decoy 
almost absolute quietude is maintained, and this attracts the 
wild-fowl to the rivers and meres. Where decoys had been 
in existence twenty years certain privileges were secured to 
them by law. At Borough Fen Decoy, which is situated 
between Peakirk and Crowland, there is, or was till lately, 
an ancient right in force which made it illegal for anyone to 
discharge a gun within a mile of the decoy. Essex, Norfolk, 
Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Lincolnshire have always been 
the chief decoying counties, for they, until a comparatively 
recent date, contained fenny districts which had altered little 
in aspect since the days of the Fenland saint, St Guthlac. 







Doivn the Yare to Yarmouth 

Daniel Defoe, in describing a tour he took through these 
eastern counties, wrote : — *' In these fens are abundance 
of those admirable pieces of art called decoys, that is to 
say, places so adapted for the harbour and shelter of wild- 
fowl, and then furnished with a breed of those they call 
decoy ducks, who are taught to allure and entice their 
kind to the places they belong to, that it is incredible 
what quantities of wild-fowl of all sorts — duck, mallard, 
teal, widgeon, etc. — they take in those decoys every week 
during the season. It may, indeed, be guessed at by this, 
that there is a decoy not far from Ely which pays to the 
landlord, Sir Thomas Hare, ^^500 a year rent, besides a 
charge of maintaining a great number of servants for the 
management ; and from which decoy alone they assured me at 
St Ives (a town on the Ouse, where the fowl they took were 
always brought to be sent to London,) that they generally 
sent up three thousand couple a week. There are more of 
these about Peterborough, which send the fowl up twice a 
week in waggon loads at a time, whose waggons, before the 
Act of Parliament to regulate carriers, I have seen drawn 
by ten and twelve horses apiece, they were laden so heavy." 

The draining of the Fens led to the disuse of many of 
the old decoys, and that the loss so sustained was consider- 
able may be gathered from the fact that ten decoys in the 
East Fen sent to London market in one season 31,200 
dutfk, widgeon, and teal. The reclamation of the marshy- 
haunts of the wild-fowl is not, however, the only cause 
for many old decoymen finding their occupation gone. 
The roar and rattle of the railways have made it impossible 
for decoying to be carried on in many places where it 
was once a profitable pursuit ; and some of the existing 
decoys are worked with difficulty on account of the disturb- 
ing sounds which drive away the fowl. Dwellers in the 
eastern counties have been struck with the curious coin- 
cidence that with the decline of the most deadly method of 
wild-fowl capture there commenced a considerable falling-off 
in the quantity of fowl visiting the decoying districts ; but 



Norfolk 

when one is aware of the reason for the decline of decoy- 
ing one is also able to understand why the fowl avoid the 
rail-laid districts. 

Fritton Lake is one of the few places where decoys still 
exist and are used when the weather is favourable. It 
is a lovely land-locked mere, a little over two miles long 
and about quarter-of-a-mile wide, occupying a secluded 
position in the midst of a fairly quiet, well-wooded district 
on the northern border of Suffolk. Disturbing sounds 
cannot wholly be prevented around the Fritton decoys, in 
spite of the fact that the woods surrounding the lake are 
strictly preserved, and that pleasure-seekers, who in summer 
are allowed access to the waters, are not permitted to ap- 
proach them in winter. The nearest railway is not so far 
away that the shriek of its engines are not heard around 
this English Walden ; and there are fields not far distant 
from its shores where the gunner can amuse himself despite 
the indignation of the decoymen. Yet decoying is still 
carried on at Fritton, and with good results in comparatively 
recent years. ^ 

It is several years since I first visited Fritton Lake and 
watched the working of its decoys. I have been there 
many times since, and enjoyed the infinite variety of that 
lovely lagoon ; but the recollections of my first visit are 
most firmly impressed on my memory. It was at Christ- 
mas-time ; there was snow on the ground ; and for several 
nights there had been sharp frosts, so that when the north 
wind waved the tall reeds which grew around the lake 
there was a continuous tinkling of ice-crystals. The frosts 
had whitened the shores of the lake and the slim branches of 
the woodland trees ; and the decoyman said he had had to get 
up long before dawn to break the ice at the entrances of his 
decoy pipes. The smooth surface of the lake was dotted with 
wild-fowl, among which a handsome pintail was pointed out 
to me as I crouched behind the reed screens of a decoy. 

^ Fourteen hundred fowl were taken in the Fritton decoys in one 
week during the winter of 1 899-1 900. 

156 



Doijun the Yare to Yarmouth 

For the information of those who have never seen a 
wild-fowl decoy, I give a brief description of the one 
which was worked that cold, bright winter day. Imagine 
a fairly wide dyke curving inland from the shore of the 
lake. This dyke is over-arched by a long tunnel of wire- 
netting and ordinary network called the pipe, which is 
about 20 feet wide at the mouth and some 100 yards long. 
The pipe narrows as it curves inland, and its smaller end 
is invisible from the lake. The movements of the decoy- 
man are concealed from the fowl by a number of reed 
fences or screens, erected on both sides of the pipe. 

When the decoyman wishes to attract the attention of 
the fowl on the lake, he goes to the entrance of the pipe 
and feeds the tame decoy ducks kept there. Seeing the 
tame ducks — which are usually birds selected on account 
of their being of the wild duck colour — swimming towards 
the decoy, the wild birds follow them into the pipe. As 
soon as they are far enough in for the decoyman to get 
behind them, he shows himself in front of the screens or 
sends his trained dog, called the " piper," into the water at 
the mouth of the decoy. Either of these sudden surprises 
naturally alarms the wild fowl, and they rise from the water 
and fly swiftly up the narrowing network tunnel. Occa- 
sionally, a bird or two will make a dash for the entrance ; 
but as a rule the lured victims will not face the swimming dog 
or the decoyman, and they eventually flutter into the small 
end or " point " of the pipe, which is constructed after the 
fashion of a fisherman's hoop net and can be disconnected 
from the rest of the pipe when the fowl are safe inside. 

I can well remember what a hard business it was to 
crouch behind the reed screens and gaze into the decoy 
through small holes made by turning slips of wood side- 
ways between the reeds. Then, too, there was the dis- 
comfort of having to carry in one's hand a little lump of 
smouldering peat, with the object of preventing the keen- 
scented fowl becoming aware of human beings near them. 
Still, the novel sight was worth the aches and chills. 



Norfolk 

The " piper " had little to do with the capture of the 
fowl taken that day ; but I had other opportunities for 
observing how this clever dog lured the mallard, widgeon, 
and teal into the pipe. Between the screens, which are 
arrapged obliquely along the sides of the decoy, are a number 
of low boards known as " leaps '' or " dog-jumps." At a 
signal from its master, the dog jumps over one of these 
boards and reveals itself to the fowl. Instead of being 
alarmed, as they are when the dog suddenly splashes into 
the water behind them, the fowl at once show signs of 
the greatest curiosity and commence swimming towards the 
decoy. The dog continues its jumping tricks, but slowly 
mates its way towards the narrow end of the pipe, and the 
fowl are frightened into the hoop net by the decoyman. 
Decoying seldom begins before November — though the 
fowl sometimes seek the seclusion of the lake a month 
or two earlier — and it is all over before the end of 
March. 

An account of decoying, however, may strike you as 
being somewhat out of place here, especially if you read 
it while lounging on a yacht's deck in the full blaze of a 
summer sun. So I hasten on to Rockland, where there is 
a much larger broad than Surlingham, connected with the 
river by Rockland Fleet, a dyke three-quarters of a mile 
long, and seven smaller dykes. The main dyke is said to 
be navigable to craft not drawing more than three feet 
of water; but even if your boat answers to this description, 
you will be wise to leave it moored by the riverside and 
explore the broad in your dingy. You will then have no 
difficulty in getting alongside the quaint litde house-boat in 
which Fuller, the broadsman mentioned in my opening 
remarks on the Broadland, spends so much of his time. 
Extensive reed beds surround and form swampy islets about 
the broad, making it hard to estimate its full size. These 
reed beds are usually full of birds, and in winter are the 
haunts of great numbers of wild-fowl. The village of 

158 




—^-jz-^'^:^^ 



Down the Tare to Yarmouth 

Rockland, where ruins of an older church are to be seen 
beside the existing church of St Mary, is not far from the 
broad. 

About three miles below Buckenham Ferry, another of 
the numerous angling resorts of this district, is Langley 
Dyke, by rowing up which it is possible to get within a 
few minutes walk of the ruins of Langley Abbey, founded 
in 1 198. Though not extensive, these ruins are not with- 
out interest. Five-and-a-half miles from Buckenham, 
and about sixteen from Norwich, at the mouth of a 
small stream called the Chet, stands Hardley Cross, an 
obelisk which marks the extent of Norwich jurisdiction 



' 7 flip ■' mmm^^-^ ' ' "«■' ' '■ 



over the Yare. Here, representatives of the Norwich 
Corporation yearly make a proclamation to the following 
effect : — 

" Oyez ! Oyez ! Oyez ! If there be any manner of 
person that will absume, purfy, implead, or present action, 
plaint, or plea for any offence, trespass, or misdemeanour 
done or committed upon the Queen's Majesty's River of 
Wenson, let him repair unto the Right Worshipful Mr 
Mayor and the Worshipful the Sheriff of the City of 
Norwich, for the redress thereof, and he shall be heard. 
God save the Queen." 

The name of Wenson, or Wensum, it must be under- 
stood, was formerly applied to this part of the Yare, as 
well as to the river at and above Norwich. 

The little river Chet, which flows into the Yare at 
Hardley Cross, is navigable to wherries as far as Loddon, 

159 




Norfolk 



a. small town about five miles from its mouth. Loddon, 
although possessing no railway station, has over a thousand 
inhabitants and an interesting church built by Sir James 
Hobart in the reign of Henry VIII. There are other 
much older churches in the neighbourhood, notably those 
of Chedgrave and Heckingham, which exhibit many traces 
of Norman workmanship. Few people trouble to explore 

the Chet, or have 
any idea that there 
is much in the out- 
of-the-way district 
through which it 
flows to reward 
them for 



lingering 
a while on its 
waters. 

From Hardley 
Cross to Reedham 
there is little cal- 
ling for description ; 
but Reedham, 
where commences 
the three-mile canal 
known as the New 
Cut, which connects 
the Yare with the Waveney, is a picturesque village on rising 
ground by the riverside. Here, you have the choice of 
sailing to Oulton and Lowestoft by way of the New Cut 
and the Waveney, or of continuing your voyage down the 
Yare and across Breydon Water to Yarmouth. The latter 
route I now propose to follow, but the former will be dealt 
with later on. Reedham is a favourite mooring-place with 
yachtsmen and wherrymen, and the former often visit 
the church, which contains some interesting memorials of 
the Berney family, and the hall, built on the site of an 
ancient castle. Reedham was once a seat of the East 
Anglian kings, and tradition says it was the scene of the 
1 60 







DoiJDn the Tare to Yarmouth 

murder of Lothbrock, a Danish chief, who, after being 
caught by a storm while hawking off the Danish coast, was 
driven across the North Sea and into the estuary of the 
Yare. He landed at Reedham, and was entertained by 
King Edmund ; but was afterwards murdered by Bern, the 
king's chief huntsman, whose jealousy he excited by ex- 
celling him in the chase. Bern subsequently accused King 
Edmund of the murder, and his story being believed by the 
Danes, a large force invaded East Anglia and overthrew 
the Saxon dynasty. 

From Reedham to Breydon the Yare winds through wide 
level marshlands, extending in some directions to an horizon 
unbroken except by the outlines of the gaunt black wind- 
mills. Windmills are the chief features of these far- 
spreading marshes — windmills and the countless cattle 
which in summer feed on the lush marsh grass. In the 
opinion of many people the four miles of river between 
Reedham and Berney Arms, an inn at the head of Breydon, 
are the dreariest in the Broadland. Still, it is as well you 
should see what the real marshlands of Norfolk are like ; 
and if you cannot grow as enthusiastic over them as a 
native of the district, who knows them at all seasons of the 
year, fishes their streams, shoots the wild-fowl which flock 
to them, and sees the flaming glory of their winter sunsets, 
you may yet feel impressed when you remember that where 
these wide level pastures now extend for miles and miles the 
sea-birds once wheeled and screamed, and Roman galleys 
and viking ships of Norway sailed to ravage the homes of 
the early dwellers in East Anglia. While you ponder 
over the great change' since those long-gone days, the 
white wings of your yacht carry you out of the Yare on 
to the wider waters of Breydon, where, beyond the ooze- 
flats on which the gulls and curlews feed, you see the 
roofs and spires of Yarmouth standing out clear against 
the sky. 



i6i 



ITINERARY THE THIRTEENTH 

UP THE BURE TO ACLE, WROXHJM, AND 
ATLSHAM 

Through the marshes — Eels and Eel-catching — Filby, Rollesby, and 
Ormesby Broads — Acle — Thurne Mouth — St Benet's Abbey — 
South Walsham Broad — Ranworth Church and Rood Screen — 
Horning Ferry — Woodbastwick, Hoveton Great, Hoveton 
Little, and Salhouse Broads — Wroxham Broad — Aylsham. 

The Yare is deservedly famous for the delightful scenery ot 
its upper waters, but the voyager who confines his cruising 
to the Yare cannot claim to be acquainted with the Norfolk 
Broads. For there are only two broads — Rockland and 
SurUngham — connected with that river, and they are by no 
means remarkable for size or beauty. Rockland Broad, it 
is true, is fairly extensive, but is so surrounded and over- 
grown with reeds that it is often difficult to tell where land 
ends and water begins. The Bure is the chief Broadland 
river, for connected with it and its tributaries are the prin- 
cipal Norfolk broads. 

The Bure discharges its waters into Breydon a little way 
above Yarmouth Haven Bridge, so, as you have arrived at 
Yarmouth by way of the Yare and Breydon, you are in a 
position to start at once on your cruise. You — or the men 
whom you have engaged to navigate your craft — will un- 
doubtedly be glad when the mast-lowering and quanting 
manoeuvres, rendered necessary by a passage under the two 
fixed bridges which span the mouth of the Bure, are over, 
and you can with comfort commence your inland voyage. 
For several miles your progress will be through a flat 
162 



up the Bure to Aylsham 

marshland district, possessing few features of interest unde- 
scribed in the foregoing pages. Here and there, however, 
you will see one or more of the curious little arks or house- 
boats which the eel-catchers make their head(]uarters at 
certain seasons of the year, when the eels are "running," 
and large enough quantities of them may be caught to repay 
the men for spreading their setts across the river. So to 
pass away some of the time which must be spent in sailing 
through the monotonous marshlands, I will give a brief 
account of the methods of the Broadland eel-catchers. 

In the first place it must be understood that during cer- 
tain months of the year, more especially in the autumn, the 
eels come down the rivers in large shoals. Until recently 
this phenomenon, though familiar to every broadsman and 
fisherman, was without satisfactory explanation ; even now 
it is a matter of mystery to most of the dwellers among the 
meres and marshes. Naturalists, however, are now aware, 
mainly in consequence of the investigations of the indefatig- 
able Dr Grassi, that the reproduction of the common eel 
i^Anguilla vu/garis'j takes place in deep salt water.^ This 

^ Mr T. Southwell, in some Further Notes on the Reproduction of the 
Common Eel, published by the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' 
Society, quotes from a paper by Dr Grassi (whose investigations 
were carried out in Italy) as follows: "To sum vip,Angui//a vulgaris, 
the Common Eel, matures in the depths of the sea, where it acquires 
larger eyes than are ever observed in individuals which have not yet 
migrated to deep water. . . . The abysses of the sea are the spawn- 
ing places of the Common Eel : its eggs float in the sea water. In 
developing from the egg it undergoes a metamorphosis, that is to 
say, it passes through a larval form denominated Leptocephalus 
hrevirostris. What length of time this development requires is very 
difficult to establish. So far we have only the following data : 
First, Anguilla vulgaris migrates to the sea from the month of 
October to the month of January ; second, the currents, such as 
those of Messina, throw up, from the abysses of the sea, specimens 
which, from the commencement of November to the end of July, 
are observed to be more advanced in development than at other 
times, but not yet arrived at total maturity ; third, eggs, which 
according to every probability belong to the Common Eel, are 
found in the sea from the month of August to that of January 

163 



Norfolk 

explains the annual " running," as it is called, of the eels 
down the rivers. The eel-catchers, who trouble themselves 
not at all about the reason for this periodical migration, take 
advantage of it by spreading across the rivers large nets known 
as " setts," attached to which are one or more hoop nets 
into which the eels, whose passage down-stream is barred 
by the network T^arrier, find their way, and from which they 
cannot escape. These setts are used at night and when the 
tide is ebbing, for it is then only that the eels " run " ; and 
the men who work them keep watch from the cabins of the 
little houseboats in order that they may be ready to lower 
the nets should a wherry or any other craft come by. 
Several stones of eels are often taken in a night by this 
means. Mr Christopher Davies mentions an occasion on 
which the catch amounted to a hundred-and-ten stones in one 
sett. This, however, was nearly fifty years ago, when, 
according to the eel-catchers, eels were more plentiful than 
they are now. More recently a fisherman living near Oulton 
Broad took seventy-four stones of eels in a net spread 
across a sluice connecting a small piece of water called. 
Leathes Ham with Lake Lothing. Other methods of 
eel-catching are spearing ("picking") and "babbing." 
An eel-pick is usually a five-pronged spear fixed on to a 
long pole. The prongs or teeth of the spear are barbed 
and set close together, so that when it is driven into the 
mud any eel with which it comes in contact is caught be- 
tween the teeth. Visitors in Broadland sometimes try their 
hands at eel-picking, and have been known to get a " duck- 
ing " through clinging to a spear stuck fast in the mud and 

inclusive ; fourth, the Leptocephalus brevirostris abounds from February 
to September. As to other months, we are in some uncertainty 
because during them our only natural fisherman, the Orthagoriscus 
mola (in the intestine of which his chief supply of larvae was found), 
appears very rarely ; fifth, I am inclined to believe that the elvers 
(young eels) ascending our rivers are already one year old, and I 
have observed that in an aquarium, specimens of Leptocephalus 
brevirostris can transform themselves into young elvers, in one 
month's time." 
164 



up the Bure to Aylsham 

letting their boat drift away from them. They also occa- 
sionally indulge in a night's " babbing '' or "bobbing'' for 
eels — a method practised by many marshnien and others 
with satisfactory results. To '* bob " for eels all that is 
required is a bunch of worsted-threaded worms on the end 
of a line fastened to a pole. This bunch is lowered to the 
bottom of the river or dyke chosen as the scene of opera- 
tions, and " bobbed " gently up and down. As soon as an 
eel seizes a worm its teeth become entangled with the 
worsted, and it can then be drawn up and deposited in a 
tub or any other receptacle the fisherman has handy. 
Babbers soon learn to detect the slight tug of an eel caught 
in the worsted. 

Filby, Rollesby, and Ormesby Broads are connected with 
the Bure by a channel called the Muck Fleet, the entrance 
to which is a little way above Stokesby Ferry, some ten 
miles from Yarmouth. As the channel is not navigable, 
yachtsmen who wish to visit the three broads usually moor 
at Runham Swim, about five miles from the river mouth, 
and walk to Filby, a distance of about three miles. The 
three broads are connected with each other and constitute 
a noted angling resort. The famous Eel's-foot Inn, where 
boats may be hired and permission to fish easily obtained, is 
generally patronised by visitors. Some description of the 
neighbourhood around the broads is contained in the opening 
pages of the chapter "By the Wild North Sea.'' 

When about eight miles of the Bure are traversed a 
change becomes evident in the character of the scenery. 
Instead of the wearisome sameness of the marshes, you get 
glimpses of woods and hamlets, and at Stokesby of the first 
ferry on the river. Stokesby village abuts closely upon the 
Bure, and is a picturesque little place, though possessing no 
attractions, save its Ferry Inn, likely to tempt you ashore. 
It is about three miles from Acle Bridge, where most 
yachting parties who have started from Yarmouth in the 
morning are glad to moor for the night. I have referred 
to Acle in the road itinerary from Norwich to Yarmouth. 

165 



Norfolk 

At Acle Bridge further mast-lowering is unavoidable, 
after which the course is as open as the narrowness of the 
river and the encountering of wherries and other craft will 
admit as far as Wroxham. About three miles above Acle 
is Thurne Mouth, where the river Thurne, which leads to 
Potter Heigham and Hickling Broad, flows into the Bure. 
Later on I shall again refer to this river ; at present you 




may continue your cruise up the Bure. You soon arrive at 
one of the :hief objects of antiquarian interest in the Broad- 
land. This is the ruins of St Benet's Abbey, seen close to 
the river on the right bank. To King Canute must be 
ascribed the honour of having founded the Abbey of St 
Benet's-at-Holm. This "greatest and most powerful 
monarch of his time," as the historian Hume calls him, 
having shed much human blood, found himself firmly seated 
on the English throne. He is then supposed to have realised 
the " unsatisfactory nature of human enjoyments " (more 
especially, I presume, those associated with the slaughtering 
of his enemies), and to have turned his attention to prepar- 
ing for a future life. Much to Hume's regret, instead of 
1 66 



up the Bure to Ayhham 

compensating those whom he had injured, he devoted him- 
self to " those exercises of piety which the monks repre- 
sented as the most meritorious. He built churches, he 
enriched ecclesiastics, and he bestowed revenues for the 
support of chantries." While in this humour he endowed 
St Benet's Abbey. It stands on the site of an earlier 
monastery destroyed by the Danes in 870. So richly was 
it re-endowed and its privileges extended by Edmund the 




S^'Seretj Mbe/ 



Confessor and other royalties that it was at one time the 
wealthiest monastic house in East Anglia. All the land 
which could be seen from its towers was presented to it by 
its royal patrons, and the abbey itself was one of the stateliest 
in England. It was very strongly built, and when besieged 
by William the Conqueror offered such stout resistance that 
his forces were of a mind to abandon the attack. It fell at 
last through the treachery of a monk who, on condition of 
his being made abbot, betrayed it into the hands of the 
besiegers. William redeemed his promise to the monk, but 
hanged him on the eve of his installation. 

The abbots of St Benet had a comfortable residence in 
the adjoining hamlet of Ludham, where they could enjoy 
a change of air after the fogs and monotony of the marshes. 
Standing so near the river, fish were always plentiful at 

167 



Norfolk 

the Abbey on fast days, and the marshes provided abundant 
wild-fowl. When the abbots had courtly guests they were 
entertained with falconry. On the suppression of the monas- 
teries, the abbot of St Benet was one of the twenty-eight 
monastic dignitaries who had a seat in Parliament, and the 
bishops of Norwich even now sit in the House of Lords 
by virtue of the title of Abbots of St Benet's-at-Holm. 
All that is left of the Abbey is a fine gateway, mixed up 
with the ruins of a windmill erected nearly two hundred 
years ago, one of the chapel walls, and a number of frag- 
ments. 

A dyke not far from the Abbey, on the other side of 
the river, leads to South Walsham Broad. This is a 
picturesque little broad, with a staithe where you may land 
and visit the two South Walsham churches of St Mary 
and St Lawrence, which stand in the same churchyard. 
One, however, that of St Lawrence, is in ruins, owing to 
a destructive fire which occurred in 1827. There is some 
curious carving over the south porch door of St Mary's, 
representing the Trinity. Not far from St Benet's Abbey, 
on the north side of the Bure, is the mouth of the river 
Ant, a tortuous stream, navigable to fair-sized yachts as far 
as Ludham Bridge, but which you must explore in a smaller 
craft if you desire to see Barton and Stalham Broads. At 
present you may content yourself with sailing on to the 
dyke which leads into Ranworth Broad. This broad and 
its surroundings form a delightful and characteristic piece 
of Brdadland scenery. In the background is Ranworth 
Church, famous among antiquaries for its splendid rood 
screen. In a report issued by the Society of Antiquaries 
it is stated that *' The magnificent painted rood screen and 
reredoses to the nave altars form a composition which is 
unequalled by any now existing in a district famous for its 
screens. As a whole, it may be said that there is nothing 
of the sort remaining to equal it in England. East Anglia 
still contains a number of painted screens, some of much 
merit, in its churches, but for delicacy and richness of detail 
l68 



up the Bure to Aylsham 

that of Ran worth is unsurpassed. The beautiful diapers on 
the robes of the saints and apostles painted on the panels, 
and the elaborate flower work which adds to and heightens 
the effect of the architectural features, make the whole com- 
position suggestive of a great initial page of some splendidly 
illuminated manuscript. The screen has suffered little, if at 




all, from the restorer, and this can be said of few remains 
of painting in our churches.'' The screen here referred to 
is not the only object of interest in this fine old church. 
There are also a fifteenth century lectern, with the plain- 
song notation of a Latin chant upon it, some curiously 
carved stalls, a fifteenth century font, and a roller on the 
chancel wall by which the sanctuary lamp used to be raised 
and lowered. 

Three and a half miles from the mouth of the Ant is 
Horning Ferry, another resort of boating folk and anglers. 

169 



Norfolk 



The village of Horning stands in the midst of a swampy 
district, though the church, which contains nothing in any 
way remarkable, occupies higher ground. The country 
around Horning is therefore subject to floods, and some 
parts of it are little better than fens. There are several 
broads in the neighbourhood, including Woodbastwick 
Broad, Hoveton Great Broad, Salhouse Broad, and 
Hoveton Little Broad. The last-named and Hoveton 




Great Broad are breeding - places of large numbers of 
black-headed gulls, while the whole district is famous for 
its bird -life. The scenery around this little cluster of 
breads is charming. There are innumerable delightful 
nooks where you may spend the whole of a summer day 
and not tire of watching the birds in the reeds and thickets, 
the play of light and shadow on the water, the rising of the 
fish, or of listening to the rustling of the reeds and the 
songs of the birds. 

The finest of the numerous broads in this neighbourhood 

is Wroxham Broad, the entrance to which is about five 

miles from Horning. It is a splendid sheet of water, about 

a mile long and a hundred acres in extent ; its shores are 

170 



up the Bare to Aylsham 

well wooded, its fishing excellent, and it affords a fine course 
for rowing and sailing matches. A charge of half-a-crown 
is, it is true, made to anglers ; but as its waters, in spite of 
their being private property, are open to all who care to sail 
upon them, this has the effect of protecting and preserving 
the fishing. To visit Wroxham on regatta day, when it is 
covered with rowing boats, yachts, house-boats, steam and 
electric launches, is to enjoy a scene of surpassing interest. 
Writing of this broad, Mr Davies says : " On its western 
margin there are wooded glades quivering with sunlight and 
shadow, green park-land and fruitful fields, cattle standing 
knee-deep in shallow bays under the shade of ancient trees, 
and all the accompaniments of quiet rural English scenery. 
On the eastern side there are reed beds, low coppices, rank 
and tangled vegetation, and spacious marsh and lake and 
river, with always a warm flush of colour. The freshness 
of the spring is doubled by the reflection in the still water ; 
the glow of summer is mellowed by the quivering haze from 
the broad ; the glories of autumn gather intensity from their 
mixture in the palette of the lake ; and the pale yellow of 
the dying reeds is in the brief sunshine of winter brightened 
into gold. In all its aspects the broad has a charm which 
is irresistible, but greatest, we think, when the silence of 
the night enfolds it ; when the stars shine below and above, 
and the noises of the night, of bird and fish, alone break 
the stillness. It has not the eerie loneliness of the wilder 
broads, but a soft, restful quiet which is a sure medicine for 
a restless mind." 

A short two miles above the broad, and approached by 
a delightful part of the river, where Hoveton church stands 
on high ground beyond the coot-haunted ronds, and the 
banks are decked with hemp agrimony and other riverside 
wild flowers, is Wroxham Bridge, the halting-place of most 
voyagers up the Bure. But the river is navigable to small 
craft for some miles farther, indeed, to Aylsham, though 
the stream is very narrow in places, and encounters with 
wherries call for careful navigation. Wroxham church, 

171 



Norfolk 

which has a Norman doorway, should be visited before 
you commence your return voyage or continue your inland 
cruise. The distance from Wroxham Bridge to Aylsham 
is about eight miles. The river winds through some most 
charming scenery, and . brings you in touch with some 
very pretty villages and not a few places of antiquarian 
and historical interest. The chief of these have been dealt 
with in the road trip from Norwich to Aylsham, Blickling, 
and Cromer. 



72 



ITINERARY THE FOURTEENTH 

THE ANT AND ITS BROADS 

Ludham Bridge — Irstead — Barton Broad — Stalham Broad — Stalham 
— Worstead — North Walsham. 

Assuming that, after cruising on the upper waters of the 
Bure, you have returned down the river to the mouth 
of the Ant, I now refer briefly to the latter stream. As 
I have already said, sailing up the Ant is only possible 
to small craft. This is due to the lowness of the single 
arch of Ludham Bridge — an obstacle encountered about a 
mile from the river mouth — and the shallowness of the 
water. For the first mile or two the scenery of the Ant 
district is not particularly impressive ; but it improves 
higher up, and by the time the village of Irstead is 
passed — a village of which William of Wykeham, after- 
wards Bishop of Winchester, was rector in 1347 — and 
Barton Broad comes in sight, you cannot fail to be glad 
you were not disheartened by an unpromising outlook or 
defeated by a few difficulties. For Barton Broad is almost 
as beautiful as Wroxham Broad, and in the eyes of many 
people excels the more famous sheet of water. It is a 
large broad, second only to Hickling in size ; but two 
little islands in it tend to convey an impression of limited 
area. It is as well that sailing craft should keep to the 
channels marked out by posts, as the water is not so deep 
as it appears. On one hand the broad is bordered by 
woodlands ; on the other by boggy marshlands. Barton 
Church, which, like Ranworth, is noted for its splendid 
screen, stands not far from the village staithe ; and 

»73 



Norfolk 

Beeston Hall, a fine old mansion which has been in the 
possession of the Preston family for many generations, is 
not far away. 

Stalham Broad is a very little way from Barton Broad ; 
but the river divides before the former is reached by the 
stream which comes into the Ant from the right. After 
having seen Wroxham and Barton, Stalham will probably 
strike you as being a very poor sort of broad ; indeed, 
it is little better than a swamp intersected by a wide 
dyke. The place from which it takes its name is a 
pleasantly situated little market town a few minutes' walk 




On tlje /fnf^ 
'^'''"- Jrjread . 

from the nearest landing-stage. The church has recently 
been restored, and there is nothing worth mentioning about 
it save its ancient font ; but at Ingham, a village about a 
mile eastward of the town, is a large and imposing church, 
remarkable for its architecture and altar-tombs. One of 
the tombs has a recumbent mail-clad effigy of Sir Oliver 
de Ingham, Seneschal of Guyenne, who died in 1344, 
and is backed by an almost obliterated mural painting, 
representing a forest with wild beasts, and a hunter blow- 
ing a horn. Another tomb, at the east end of the south 
aisle, has sculptured figures of Sir Roger de Bois and his 
wife ; while a third tomb has effigies of Sir Miles and 
Lady Stapleton. Formerly there was a priory of a 
monastic order known as the Mathurines here, and the 

174 




BARTON BROAD 



Hhe Ant and Its Broads 



ruins of it are still attached to the south wall of the 
church. 

In order to visit Stalham you will have left the main 
stream of the Ant, and to regain it you must return to the 
spot where you branched off into the broad. From here, if 
you will, you may continue your upstream cruise to North 
Walsham, a town about eight miles from the entrance to 
Stalham Broad. You will have to lower your mast at 




^-^""^ -Bar^op :Broad 



one or two bridges, and pass through one or two locks. 
While at one of the latter, known as Briggate Lock, you 
will be within a mile of Worstead, once a considerable 
town belonging to the abbots of St Benet's-at-Holm, and 
although now decayed into an ordinary rural hamlet, still 
containing a church which is what it has always been — 
one of the finest of the many churches for which the 
county is renowned. Its lofty pinnacled tower would 
attract attention even in the " city of churches ; " its 
windows, porch, screens, and elaborate carvings are ad- 
mired by all who see them. Worstead was formerly an 
important centre of the woollen manufacture established 
in Norfolk by the Flemings ; and as the villages of 

175 



Norfolk 

Kersey and Lindsey have given their names to certain 
kinds of woollen materials, so Worstead has given its 
name to another. John Paston, in 1464, was anxious 
that his cousin Margaret should send him two ells of 
Norfolk worsted for doublets, for, as he said, he " would 
make (his) doublet all worstead, for worship of Norfolk." 
Worstead Hall, the seat of the Rous family, contains 
some fine paintings, including works of Vandyke and 
Rubens. 

A lock close to North Walsham flour-mill is the spot 
where the river flows nearest to the town, and is usually 
the point where yachtsmen end their upward cruise. The 
town is a straggling place, the " lions " of which are its 
church of St Nicholas and market-cross. The former 
once possessed a tower and spire which rose to the height 
of 147 feet; but it was struck by lightning in 1724, and 
the tower is now in ruins. Memorials of the Pastons are 
plentiful in Norfolk churches, and there is one in the fine 
chancel of St Nicholas, representing, in full armour. Sir 
William Paston, a judge who died in 1 608. In 138 1, when 
a rebellion broke out in East Anglia, a sanguinary battle 
was fought about a mile from North Walsham between the 
rebels and a large body of troops. The battle-field is 
marked by a tall stone cross. The distance from Ant 
mouth to North Walsham is about fourteen miles. 



176 



ITINERARY THE FIFTEENTH 

THE THURNE, HEIGH AM SOUNDS, AND 
HICKLING BROAD 



jif 'T 



Womack Broad — Ludham — Heigham Sounds — The Bearded Tit- 
mouse — Night on the Sounds — Hickling Broad — Horsey- 
Mere — Somerton Broad. 

Thurne Mouth is about two miles down the Bure from 
Ant Mouth. The Thurne or Hundred Stream, as it is 
sometimes called, has a fairly wide and deep channel as far 
as Potter Heigham, 
above which navigation 
is not quite so easy ; 
but the scenery is 
often charming, and 
Hickling Broad, which 
is about six miles 
from Potter Heigham 
Bridge, is the largest 
sheet of water — ex- 
cept Breydon, which 
is not a broad — in 
the Broadland. The 
bridge is about four miles from the river mouth, and is usually 
the first halting-place of voyagers on the Thurne ; but before 
it is reached Womack Broad is seen to the left of the stream. 
This is one of the many broads now almost " grown-up " 
with aquatic vegetation ; but a channel is kept open through 
it by which it is possible to visit Ludham, a village where 
the abbots of St Benet's had a "grange" to retire to 
when tired of the monotony of existence at their marshland 

M 177 




Norfolk 



abbey. The grange eventually became an episcopal palace 
of the bishops of Norwich, one of whom restored it after a 
disastrous fire in i6i i. The restored edifice is now a farm- 
house known as Ludham Hall ; a chapel erected subsequent 
to the fire is converted into a granary. Ludham Church is 
another of the Broadland churches containing gorgeous 
screens. Potter Heigham Bridge connects the parish from 
which it takes its name with Repps-cum-Bastwick, whose 
church stands close to the railway which also crosses the 
river. 

Voyagers on the Thurne, however, seldom loiter over 
the first few miles of river, being anxious to get on as 
speedily as possible to the wild fen-like country around 
Hickling Broad. So you may hurry on till you come to 
Kendall Dyke, a channel on the left, which leads into 
Heigham Sounds, a wilderness of wild-fowl-haunted reeds 
and waters, the latter famous for their pike. Reeds grow 
in great abundance in this neighbourhood, which has 
always been one of the favourite haunts of that handsome 
little fen bird, the bearded titmouse {^Panurus biarmkus). 
If, in the course of your cruising, you come upon a pair 
or flock of these beautiful birds, and have an oppor- 
tunity of watching their acrobatic antics in a reed bed, 
you will enjoy one of the most fascinating scenes of bird- 
life, and it is to be hoped that however much you may be 
tempted to shoot one of the elegant mustached cock-birds, 
or persuade a broadsman to obtain one for you, you will 
resist the temptation. For the Norfolk Broadland is the 
only district in England where bearded tits are now to be 
found, and even here their number is lamentably small. In 
1898, Mr J. H. Gurney, who has contributed an interest- 
ing article on the species to the Transactions of the Norfolk 
and Norwich Naturalists' Society, could hear of only thirty- 
three nests in the county ; whereas in 1868 it was estimated 
that there were some one hundred and twenty-five nests of 
eggs hatched off, and in 1848 about one hundred and 
sixty nests. Special protection is now extended to both 
178 



The Thurne^ Heigham Sounds 



nests and eggs ; but the number of badly-stuffed bearded 
tits seen in marshmen's cottages and elsewhere in Broad- 
land excites doubts as to whether this protection is much 
good to them. The nests are usually easily found, and it 
generally rests with the finder to decide whether the eggs 
in them are to bring forth young birds. Would that all 
persons who discover bearded tits' nests were content to 
simply admire them, or at most to photograph them ! 

Mr T. Southwell, F.Z.S., who has edited a new edition 
of Lubbock's " Fauna 
of Norfolk," is en- 
rapturedwith Heigham 
Sounds. In his in- 
troduction to the book 
he writes : — " Let the 
reader drift quietly 
through Heigham 
Sounds on a glorious 
night in the early 
autumn, the dying 
breeze just stirring the 
sails of his yacht and 
raising the slightest 
possible ripple on the 
surface of the lake, 
only enough to make more brilliant the moonbeam's burnished 
path along the water, and to wake the whispering reeds — 
the stillness broken only by the cry of some startled water- 
bird, or the splash of a monster fish as it darts into the 
reed-beds — and he will behold a scene which no artist 
can depict, and which will haunt his memory for many 
a day. Nor will the sights and sounds on a fine night 
early in summer be easily forgotten. During the day 
not a wing may have been seen, but after sundown the 
place is alive with the song of the reed-birds, the air 
resounds with the bleat of the snipe, waterhens and coots 
are calling in all directions, and many are the strange 

179 




On fl,r^hurne. ^^ , 



Norfolk 

sounds borne on the soft air of evening which reach his 



ear. 



Heigham Sounds lead into Whittlesley or Whiteslea, a 
reed-girt lakelet from which, by way of a dyke, access is 
obtained to Hickling Broad. As I have said, this broad is 
the largest in Norfolk. It is rather more than 400 acres 
in extent, but is shallow in places and, as in the case of 
Barton Broad, it is safest to keep within the post-marked 



z^.^^^^.'-=ie£'- 




sr^--' 






channels. Your dingy, however, will enable you to make 
yourself thoroughly acquainted with the surroundings of a 
magnificent lake which, as a writer on the Broadland has 
stated, is larger in area than Hyde Park. Nowhere in 
Norfolk can you better appreciate the almost primeval 
nature of some of the Broadland scenery. To be afloat on 
Hickling Broad when the gorgeous hues of a Broadland 
sunset are reflected by its waters is to witness a scene of 
awe-inspiring grandeur never to be forgotten. 

There are one or two smaller broads in the neighbourhood 
of Hickhng, but they are private property. Fishing is also 
preserved at Horsey Mere, a find broad of 130 acres which 
180 



T'he Thurne^ Heigham Sounds 

may be reached from Whiteslea by a i| miles long channel, 
the Old Meadow Dyke. This broad is about half-an- 
hour's walk from the sea, with which it is connected by 
Palling Dyke. If you explore the district you will find 
yourself amid the scenes of the sea's incursions described 
in the chapter " By the Wild North Sea." The little 
town of Martham, to which reference is also made in that 
chapter, is not far from the ferry which crosses the river 
a little way above Kendal Dyke ; and Somerton Broad, — 
not a particularly interesting piece of water — is about a 
mile above the ferry. Beyond that point navigation is 
impracticable, and you had better not attempt it. 



i8i 



ITINERARY THE SIXTEENTH 

UP THE WAVENEY FROM BRETDON TO 
OULTON BROAD 

The Waveney — Burgh Castle — St Olave's— Fritton Lake — St 
Olave's Priory — Herringfleet Hills — Somerleyton — Oulton 
Broad — George Borrow's Summer-house — Lowestoft. 

The Yare and Bure are the two rivers to which visitors 
whose time for Broadland cruising is limited usually devote 
most attention ; but there is yet another important and by 
no means uninteresting waterway to be dealt with. This 
is the Waveney, a river which brings you in touch with 
some of the pleasantest places in Broadland, one of the 
largest broads, and a lovely lagoon — Fritton Lake — which, 
although not in Norfolk, and in no sense a " broad,*' should 
certainly be visited by every voyager in the district. The 
Waveney flows into Breydon close to where the Yare 
mingles its waters with those of the famous estuary. 

Overlooking the mouth of the river, on the Suffolk side, 
is Burgh Castle. This so-called castle, supposed by some 
antiquaries to be the old Garianonum, is one of the most 
perfect relics of the Roman occupation of Britain. To 
the least imaginative there is something impressive about its 
massive walls and solid watch-towers. Nearly two thousand 
years have passed since they were built, and Roman legions 
occupied them and the opposite camp at Caister ; but the 
lapse of years has had little effect upon them. The pro- 
praetor Publius Ostorius Scapula, whose object it was to 
keep in check the warlike Iceni, is believed to have been 
responsible for their erection. The site of the so-called 
182 



up the Waveney 



castle was a good one for old-time military purposes. It 
is on the brow of a hill near the confluence of the Yare 
and Waveney, and overlooks the wide valley that was once 
a great estuary. The walls built of flint, chalk, rubble, 
and Roman tiles, form an irregular parallelogram 640 feet in 
length and 370 in breadth. They are about 14 feet high 
and 9 feet thick. At the foot of the hill on which they 
stand the Roman galleys must have moored and landed 
their legions. On the summit of each of the circular 




towers is a cavity, variously conjectured to have contained 
a watch or signalling turret, a ballister, or some similar 
weapon of primitive warfare. In 1652 the ruins were in 
the possession of General Fleetwood, who married Bridget 
Ireton, a grand-daughter of Cromwell. A little over 
fifty years ago they passed into the hands of the Boileau 
family. 

That part of the Waveney between Breydon and Oulton 
Broad is fairly wide and deep, rendering sailing — -a matter 
of difficulty on some of the Broadland waterways — com- 
paratively easy work. A wide expanse of marshland 
stretches away from the right bank, but the scenery on 
the other is varied, wooded slopes topped by rugged firs, 



Norfolk 

heathery hills, birch and alder copses, and picturesque 
marsh farmsteads uniting to make the river a delightful 
one to sail upon. After leaving Burgh Castle, however, 
there is little or nothing to detain you until you arrive at 
St Olaves Bridge. Here you should moor a while and 
stroll to Fritton Lake. This lake which is about two- 
and-a-half miles long, is almost entirely surrounded by 
woods, and is undoubtedly the loveliest sheet of water in 
East Anglia. It is private property, but its waters are 




lilll ' 'MM 



jr///'on Uo^, 



O— 



open to boating parties and anglers during the summer 
months upon payment of a small sum to the landlord of 
Fritton Old Hall, an old manor house now transformed 
into a place of accommodation for visitors. A garden full 
of fragrant old-fashioned flowers is one of the delights of 
Fritton Old Hall, and although the greater part of the 
woodlands is strictly preserved, a most enjoyable ramble 
may be taken through a portion of them connected with 
Host Hallam's charmingly situated home. The wild-fowl 
decoys referred to in the description of a cruise down the 
Yare are an interesting feature of Fritton Lake ; but as 
they are worked during sharp winters only, the decoymen's 
methods remain a mystery to most visitors who come here. 
184 



up the Waveney 

Fritton is the Walden of the Broadland, and there are 
many people who would like to dwell on its shores as did 
Thoreau on those of Walden. 

Close by St Olaves Bridge and railway station are the 
scanty ruins of an Augustinian priory ; but they are very 
scanty indeed, and you need not fear you have missed an 
antiquarian treat if you continue your cruise without seeing 
them. Even if you do visit them, you will speedily forget 
all about them when you come in sight of the heather-clad 
Herringfleet Hills, which, alas ! have paid the penalty of 
their beauty and wide outlook by having to submit to the 
erection of a number of glaring red villas. In spite of 
these architectural eyesores, the scenery of this part of the 
river is charming, and the memory of it helps to beguile the 
time spent in sailing through the less interesting country 
lying between Somerleyton and Oulton Broad. To reach 
the broad you must leave the main channel of the Waveney 
on the right and sail up a fairly wide waterway known as 
Oulton Dyke, the entrance to which is about three miles 
above Somerleyton Bridge. 

Oulton Broad, though a large and famous piece of water, 
is not lovely. For regatta purposes no broad affords a 
better course ; but this is its sole attraction. At one 
time, before the Broadland was " discovered," and when 
George Borrow's house was about the only building on one 
side of the broad it, no doubt, was a somewhat different 
place ; but even then it does not seem to have been very 
attractive and Borrow gives a very melancholy account of it 
in one of his books. It is a pity that the ancient summer- 
house in which he wrote " Lavengro " and " The Bible in 
Spain " is not the only building seen here now ; for the 
" running up " of modern villas has robbed the broad of 
what picturesqueness it once possessed, and its nearness to 
Lowestoft has made it a far too popular resort. Oulton, 
however, has its advantages. All kinds of craft suitable for 
Broadland cruising may be hired here, including some of 
the famous pleasure-wherries ; and the broad is within a 

185 



Norfolk 

few minutes' railway journey of the " Queen of Eastern 
Watering-places," which you may also reach by way of a 
salt-water channel called Lake Lothing. But both Oulton 
Broad and Lowestoft are in Suffolk, and can scarcely be 
dealt with at length in a Norfolk guide-book. Their 
appearance here is only justified by their forming part of 
the Broadland. 



i86 



ITINERARY THE SEVENTEENTH 

OULTON BROAD TO BECCLES AND BUNGA7 

Burgh St Peter — Its curious Church — Aldeby Priory — Beccles — 
Bungay — The New Cut. 

To reach Beccles and Bungay by way of the Waveney you 
must, if at Oulton Broad, return to the mouth of Oulton 
Dyke and there turn sharply to the left and continue your 
cruise up the main river. Even before leaving the Dyke 
you catch sight, across the marshes, of a little marshland 
church which, perhaps, will seem familiar on account of the 
frequency with which it is represented in Broadland guide 
books and among the photographs in the Great Eastern 
Railway's carriages. This 4s the church of Burgh St 
Peter — one of the strangest and ugliest ecclesiastical struc- 
tures in the eastern counties. The upper part of the tower 
is like a flight of steps — in fact the tower consists of five 
storeys, each storey being considerably smaller than the one 
immediately beneath it. The village of Burgh St Peter, 
notwithstanding its being only about four miles from Lowes- 
toft, is one of the most out-of-the-way places in Broadland. 
It is approached far more easily by river than by road or 
rail, the road route to Lowestoft being one of some fourteen 
miles. When a villager wishes to " go shopping " at the 
neighbouring port or to pay a visit to Carlton Colville, a 
neighbouring village, he must first row across the river and 
then find his way along an almost imperceptible footpath 
across the marshes. Burgh St Peter is one of the several 
villages in East Anglia whose inhabitants are fond of 
describing them as the " last place God made." 

About five miles from the mouth of Oulton Dyke, but 



Norfolk 



some distance from the riverside, is Aldeby. The name of 
a farm here — Priory Farm — may tempt you to go in search 
of ruins ; but you will find little to reward you for your 
trouble. True, there was once a priory here — or rather a 
cell — but like that of St Olaves, it has almost entirely dis- 
appeared. Even at its best it only accommodated a prior 
and three monks; now its remains form part of a farmhouse. 

The village church is 
not uninteresting, for 
its doorway is Norman, 
and other parts of it 
are very ancient. The 
parish church at 
Beccles, however, the 
lofty bell - tower of 
which is to be seen 
long before the town is 
reached, is a far finer 
building. The tower 
stands apart from the 
church, and apparently 
has never been com- 
pleted, its construction 
suggesting that it was to have been surmounted by a spire. If 
this had been done, Beccles church-tower would be one of 
the best in East Anglia. Even now one cannot fail to 
be impressed by its height and massiveness. As the town 
is in Suffolk, and only mentioned here because it comes 
within the bounds of Broadland, it cannot be dealt with at 
length ; but I may say that it is a pleasantly situated place, 
though possessing little besides its church to draw you from 
the river. A wide view of the Waveney Valley may be 
obtained from the churchyard, and, of course, an even 
wider one from the summit of the bell-tower. 

Beccles is about seven-and-a-half miles from Oulton 
Dyke, and the river between these places is wide enough 
for the sailing of the largest craft employed in Broadland. 
i88 




"^4' 13}ur/roo 



Oulton Broad to Beccles and Bungay 



Its scenery, however, can only be described as tame. Above 
Beccles the Waveney pursues a serpentine course ; and 
although Bungay is only seven miles from Beccles by road 
it is ten miles further by water. The river is navigable to 
wherries and small yachts as far as Bungay, but no further ; 
though a very pleasant trip may be taken in a rowing boat 
as far as a densely wooded bank or " hanger," upon the 
summit of which Mr H. Rider Haggard lives in Ditching- 
ham House, which is stored with curios and sporting 
trophies brought here 
by Mr Haggard from 
all quarters of the 
globe. 

The chief sights of 
Bungay are its old 
castle built by the 
Bigods, Earls of Nor- 
folk ; its churches of 
St Mary and Holy 
Trinity, the former of 
which has attached 
to it the ruins of a 
nunnery ; and its market-cross, surmounted by a figure of 
Justice, and having a pair of hand-stocks still fastened 
to one of its pillars. Bungay is a Suffolk town ; the 
Waveney being the boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk 
here and for some miles of its course. As I have said, the 
town is not easily accessible by water on account of the 
river's many windings. Yachtsmen are also often delayed 
by having to wait for the opening of locks at Geldeston, 
Ellingham, and Wainford Mills. Although the Waveney 
is one of the chief Broadland waterways, only one broad — 
Oulton — is directly connected with it. 

The New Cut. 

In writing of the Yare I have referred to the New Cut, 
the entrance to which is at Reedham. This is a canal 

189 







Norfolk 

about two-and-a-half miles long, cut some seventy years 
ago to connect the Waveney with the Yare, and thus render 
it possible for wherrymen to sail from one river to the other 
without going round by Breydon. Now that Broadland 
has become a holiday place, yachting parties are not slow to 
avail themselves of this more direct route. The canal is cut 
across the Reedham, Haddiscoe, and Herringfleet marshes; 
and the greater part of it is parallel with the railroad from 
Norwich to Lowestoft. A toll of one shilling must be paid 
for each yacht using the New Cut, which is collected by 
the bridgemen at Haddiscoe Bridge. 



190 



I^art 3131 

NORFOLK: ITS NATURAL HISTORY AND 
SPORT 

BIRD LIFE IN NORFOLK 
By The Rev. Robert C. Nightingale 

The old fame of Norfolk as a dwelling-place of the rarer 
British birds and the home of an unusual number of different 
species has somewhat suffered of late years, mainly through 
the reclamation of waste land and water and the increase 
of game- shooting. The din and bustle of game-driving 
especially have frightened many birds from the woods and 
coppices to which they formerly resorted. The popularity 
of the Broad district has tended to banish some of the 
birds peculiar to that district. These numbered a few 
species all but unknown in other parts of Great Britain, 
and their partial loss is a sorrow to the bird lover that he 
is not compensated for even by the well-deserved popularity 
of the neighbourhood which his bird friends have deserted. 

The following birds more or less commonly residential 
in Norfolk at the beginning of the nineteenth century are 
no longer found in it except as occasional visitors, and some 
of them, such as the great bustard, kite, raven, and Savi's 
warbler, now shun the county altogether. 

Avocet. Hoopoe. 

Bittern. Kite. 

Black tern. Peregrine falcon. 

Godwits. Raven. 

Great bustard. Savi's warbler. 

Harriers (a pair or two of marsh harriers still haunt 
the Broads perhaps). 

That the wild birds and beasts of a district rarely return 

191 



Norfolk 

to it when once they have been driven from it, is an axiom 
of the naturalist. This axiom is strikingly illustrated in 
Norfolk just now. Hundreds of square miles of land from 
which the wild fauna were driven by the cultivation of the 
soil have relapsed into their original condition owing to the 
depression of agriculture, but there is no sign of the old 
winged inhabitants of these districts returning to them. 

Most of our birds, however, are not only as numerous 
in Norfolk as they were formerly, but some of them are 
more numerous than ever. 

The long Norfolk coast-line and the salt broads lying 
near it are ever attractive resting-places to birds travelling 
to or from the continent. In some spots the supply of food 
for wading and swimming birds is greater than it was, and 
a little protection is afforded to certain birds through the 
operation of the Gun Act and the Birds' Protection Acts. 
The balance for the century between newly observed 
and extinct Norfolk species is still slightly in favour of 
the former. 

Out of the 385 species of birds named in the last edition 
of " Montagus' Dictionary of British Birds," no fewer than 
304 have been recorded as occurring in Norfolk. This 
plentiful bird-life has produced an unequalled line of local 
ornithologists beginning with Sir Thomas Browne and 
going on to the late Mr Henry Stevenson and the 
Gurney family. The " Birds of Norfolk," by the 
former is an altogether unequalled book amongst County 
Ornithologies. 

The golden -crested wren the smallest, the wild swan, 
and, till 1838, the great bustard, the largest of British 
birds have found their favourite English home in Norfolk, 
and well represent the inclusive nature of the bird life of 
the county. 

With a slight alteration a celebrated Oxford dictum may 
be applied to Norfolk birds, as we may say with almost 
strict truth: "The bird that is not known in Norfolk is 
not worth knowing anywhere." 
192 



Bird Life in Norfolk 

The following birds of Great Britain have been first 
obtained in Norfolk ; and some of them, as British birds, 
are still peculiar to the county : 

Bee-eater; Pectoral sandpiper. 

Black-bellied dipper. Red-crested pochard. 

Broad-billed sandpiper. Red-footed falcon. 

Buffle-headed duck. Roller* 

Caspian tern. Savi's warbler. 

Capped petrel. Shore-lark. 

Dusky petrel. Steller's duck. 

Eastern golden plover (?). Wall creeper. 

Pallas' sandgrouse. White-winged tern. 

The blue thrush (the only English specimen) and the 
eared stonechat (the only British specimen) have also been 
seen in the county. Amongst British birds either nesting 
in Norfolk only, or else more commonly there than in any 
other part of the British Islands, are the following : 

Bearded titmouse. Marsh harrier. 

Gad wall duck. Water rail. 

Garganey duck. 

In the winter time the sea coast and the meres and broads 
still abound with water fowl. On the meres and broads, 
however, their numbers are fast decreasing ; nevertheless a 
few species seem to be increasing on these waters. Amongst 
these are the great crested grebe, the gadwall, the gar- 
ganey, and. the shoveller ducks. As in other parts of 
England the starling is undoubtedly much more common 
than it was, and in game preserving parishes the nuthatch, 
and, during the last nine or ten years the woodpeckers have 
much increased in numbers. 

The glory of the meres and broads of Norfolk as winter 
abodes of wild fowl is abated since the disuse of decoys for 
capturing wild duck, and the consequent cessation of regu- 
larly feeding the wild fowl. 

From 10,000 to 15,000 birds would formerly be taken 

N 193 



Norfolk 

in a season in one set of three or four decoys placed around 
sheets of water not more than four acres in extent. That 
is to say, from four to six tons of wild fowl would be taken 
in a week from one mere or broad. (The Harwich duck 
water was only an acre in extent, and in one season 1 6,800 
ducks were taken off it ! ) On the small water at Herring- 
fleet, just over the Suffolk border, 600 birds were frequently 
taken in a night,' and 207 ducks were taken off this 
water in one night so recently as 1879. In a very short 
season 1000 teal alone were taken off a small pool at Hemp- 
stead, near Holt. To make up for the decline of wild- 
fowling, however, the prolificness of Norfolk in most other 
sporting birds increases every year. The following figures 
show how great is this prolificness : — At Houghton in 
1897, 4,300 partridges were killed in four days by Lord 
Grey de Wilton and his party, and at Holkham, 8,426 
partridges were killed in the season of 1896 ; 3,439 being 
shot in four days. At Merton no fewer than 7,734 phea- 
sants were shot in the season of 1896. No late summer 
visitor to Norfolk can fail to be struck by the vast number 
of partridges and pheasants he sees in every direction, 
although, of course, he will be too early to see the greater 
number of our coast and inland wild fowls and migratory 
game birds, such as woodcock and snipe. 

The visitor to the broads, if he is a careful observer, will 
be almost certain to see birds that are new to him unless he 
has had unusual opportunities for the study of bird life. 
One of the most beautiful and interesting of these is the 
bearded titmouse {^Panurus biarmicus^. Though rare, this 
graceful bird is, I believe, by no means so rare as is generally 
supposed. The quiet watcher amongst the reed beds 
is nearly sure, in the course of an hour or two to see a pair 
or two of " reed pheasants," — the folk name of this bird — 
either hanging on the reeds in their own daringly supple 
fashion, or winging their way from one clump of reeds to 
another with a dipping flight. The bearded titmouse is 
about six inches and a half long, of which length the tail 
194 



Bird Life in Norfolk 

takes up about half. Its back is very light fawn colour, 
and its breast and belly light rose and orange red respec- 
tively. Beneath each eye is a conical black tuft of velvety 
feathers which give the bird its name. The colours of the 
hen bird are fainter than those of the cock, and she has no 
whiskers. 

Another bird characteristic of the Broads is the great 
crested grebe. Owing to its being carefully preserved of 
late years this fine bird is recovering its former position as to 
numbers in some parts of the county. No one can mistake 
the bird. Its size — it is about two feet long — its black 
double crest and chestnut and black collar give it too attrac- 
tive an appearance for it to be overlooked. There is no 
difference in the plumage of the cock and hen birds except 
that the collar and crests of the latter are not quite as large 
as those of the former. Neither sex attains its full plumage 
until after the second moult. This grebe is noteworthy 
as being one of the few birds that are common in each 
of the four quarters of the globe. It is, unfortunately, 
much persecuted on account of its beautiful plumage 
which is used for tippets and dress trimmings. (Within 
the last few hours I have seen two ardent lady lecturers 
on "the cruelty of man towards birds," wearing tippets 
to the making of which at least a half dozen grebes had 
contributed ! ) 

The heron is another bird that always attracts the atten- 
tion of a visitor to the Norfolk waters, either when it is 
standing motionless, thigh deep in the water a yard or two 
from the bank, or when it is flying with stately, measured 
beats of its wings to or from the heronry. The heron can 
be identified at a great distance when flying by his singularly 
arched wings, and slender and apparently neckless body. 
Norfolk people still call him a " harnsey,'* as they did in the 
days of falconry, when " not to know the hawk from 
the harnsey " he was chasing, was the recognised sign of 
muddle-headedness. The principal Norfolk heronry is at 
Didlington, and there are or were till lately heronries at 

19s 



Norfolk 

Gunton, Earlham, Costessy, Reedham, Holkham, Kimberley 
and other places. Herons have decreased of late years 
in Norfolk through being trapped and shot by gamekeepers 
and others. 

A bird the inland tourist is almost sure to hear, although 
on account of its extreme wariness he may possibly miss 
seeing it, is the stone curlew, otherwise the great or Norfolk 
plover {Oedicnemus crepitans^. From the middle of April 
to the end of September this bird haunts the heaths of the 
county, generally laying its two eggs on the surface of a dry 
flint strewed patch of soil. At night it often leaves its 
nesting places to seek for food in cultivated fields or to 
obtain water out of the brooks and ponds. In the open 
parts of the county in the early morning and on bright 
moonlight nights its clear mournful cry may generally be 
heard, although the birds themselves are flying high up out 
of sight. In the daytime stone curlews crouch close to the 
ground knowing that their protective colour preserves them 
from observation as they lie low amongst the greenish grey 
stones and furze to which they run as soon as they catch sight 
of an intruder on their solitude. The cock will often utter 
his cry of " curluui " to warn his mate or comrades before 
he runs to cover. Tennyson tells us that when Enid went 
forth with Geraint : 

" The great plover's human whistle amazed 
Her heart, and glancing round the waste, she fear'd 
In every wavering brake an ambuscade." 

These birds are from sixteen to eighteen inches long and 
weigh about a pound each. Their upper plumage is tawny 
brown with dusky brown stripes down the middle of the 
feathers. Their under plumage yellowish white, the breast 
is streaked with dusky brown. They have a pure white 
stripe and a mixed brown and white stripe on each wing. 
The stone curlews derive their book name from their ex- 
ceptionally thick knees. They may be identified by their 
very large fawn-like eyes. 
196 



Bird Life in Norfolk 

It is sometimes said that the nightingale is not a common 
bird in Norfolk. This does not accord with my experience 
in the western half of the county at any rate. There almost 
every copse and shrubbery has one or more of these birds 
in it during May and June. On one occasion I heard 
seven singing night after night in a space of five hundred 
yards in extent from end to end. In the same division of 
the county goldfinches and bullfinches are still fairly plenti- 
ful ; no doubt owing to the bird catchers being kept away 
from so strictly preserved a district. All over the county 
plovers of all kinds abound, and except in the late spring 
and early summer months the inshore waters are fre- 
quented by myriads of gulls. Young white-tailed eagles 
are frequently taken ; ospreys, buzzards, peregrine falcons, 
quails and black grouse are still visitors or residents in Nor- 
folk, but their numbers become fewer and fewer from year 
to year. Since 1859 incursions into the county of the 
Tartar grouse known as Pallas's sand grouse, have taken 
place at irregular intervals. As is usually the unfortunate 
lot of strange birds seeking to establish themselves in 
England, they have always been ruthlessly murdered. (In 
one month, between the third week in May and the third 
week in June, about fifty of these charming birds were 
shot in Norfolk.) I have reason to believe that odd and 
unnoted birds of this species often travel into our county, 
and bird-loving visitors v/ill do well to be on the watch 
for them. They may be identified by their two long 
finely pointed wing feathers, their feathered legs and feet, 
black striped clay yellow back and grey belly. They 
measure about twelve inches in length exclusive of the 
longer tail feathers. 

The unusual numbers and variety of the folk names of 
birds in Norfolk is an incidental proof of the richness of its 
bird life, and a list of a few of these names will be useful to 
the visitor, as the ordinary names of some of the com- 
monest birds are quite unknown to a large number of the 
inhabitants of the county : 

197 



Norfolk 



Bullfinch. Bloodolf. 

Blue tit. Pickcheese. 

Chaffinch. Spink, 

Gulls — the smaller. . Mows. 

Gulls — the larger. Cobs. 

Goldfinch. Draw-water and King Harry. 

Green plover. Peweep. 

Hedge sparrow. Dunnock. 

Song thrush. Mavish. 

Wild pigeons. Dows. 



198 



BOTANY IN NORFOLK 

By H. D. Geldart 

Norfolk as a county has unusual advantages, considered 
from a botanical point of view — its large area, fourth among 
the counties of England — its sea coast more than a hundred 
miles in length, — its almost unique " Broad " country on 
the east and Fenland on the west, with a ridge of sandy, 
chalky, or clay land between them, much of which remains 
very little altered by cultivation as sheep-walk, warren or 
heath interspersed here and there with primeval bogs, enable 
it to retain in one or other locality almost every one of the 
flowering plants which have ever been recorded as having 
been found in it. Besides, it is practically an island (with 
the exception of Marshland and a few fens on its western 
border), for the waters which drain east and west from Lop- 
ham and flow into the sea by the Waveney at Yarmouth, and 
the Ouse at Lynn are parted from each other by only a few 
yards of land, so that the observer is rarely at any loss to 
decide which county should claim his find. That the corner 
of East Anglia in which Norfolk is situated was formerly 
surrounded by sea is more than probable, from the occur- 
rence of maritime plants and insects in the Brandon and 
Thetford districts, and also in Eastern Suffolk, though the 
eastern end of the strait separating it from the mainland was 
most likely further south than the present boundary between 
the two counties. 

If we start northward along the coast from the Haven's 
Mouth at Yarmouth we shall at once come upon a very 
interesting and somewhat special flora. The South Denes, 
injured though they have been by ijse for encampments, 

199 



Norfolk 

etc., still afford, mixed with common littoral plants, two 
rare grasses {^Poa hulhosa and Weingartncr'ta canescens^^ 
a Trefoil [TrifoUum suffocatum), a special form of Rest- 
Harrow {^Ononis horrida^, a Convolvulus (^Volvulus soldan- 
ella), and more than one Cerastium. When we have 
passed the town we may find the very rare Marram Grass 
{^Ammophila baltica), and the sea-shore form of Mountain 
Rue {Thalictrum dunense)^ going on northwards still the 
sand plants hold their own for miles until the cliffs begin, 
and then from Happisburgh on by Bacton, Mundesley, 
Trimingham, Overstrand, past Cromer, where the coast 
turns westward by Runton, Beeston, Sheringham, to the 
Cliff's End there is a great change in the character of 
the flora. We shall here find two Catchflies i^Silene anglica 
and Silene conica), the round rough-headed Poppy {^Papaver 
hybridum), a Medick {^Medicago sylvestris^, found only 
here and at Thetford; three Broomrapes [Orohanche elatior^ 
0. purpurea and 0. minor^, several Orchises — bee, 
pyramidal and purple; and Orchis incarnata, — and in many 
places the ground at the top of the cliffs will be yellow 
with Bird's-foot Trefoil, blue with Viper's Bugloss, or 
pink with Sea Thrift. Where the cliffs end salt marshes 
alternating with sandy or stony beach begin and continue 
all the way to Hunstanton. Along this coast there are to 
be found Horned Poppies and Sea Eryngo, Sea Heath 
{^Frankenia laevis), four Sea-Lavenders {^Statice L'tmonium, 
S. pyramidalis, S. auriculafolia and S. reticulata)^ two or 
three forms of Centaury {^Erythraa centaurium and E. 
pulchella). At Cley there is a thicket of Suaeda fruticosa, 
supposed to have been brought here by shipwreck, whence it 
has spread to many other places, two rare and beautiful 
Grasses Polypogon monspeliensis and P. Utt oralis), and at 
Wells an almost unique (so far as Great Britain is con- 
cerned) form of Sow-thistle {^Sonchus angustijblius); atone 
point on this coast there is the rare Yellow Fig wort (^Scro- 
phularia vernalis) ; at Brancaster there is the Great Sea 
Rush (^Juncus acutus), and all along there is a host too 
200 



Botany in Norfolk 

numerous to mention of Scirpi, carlces and brackish water 
plants. There is no more cliff except the curious red 
chalk cliff at Hunstanton, which yields no fresh plants, and 
from thence to Lynn we have beach and marsh again, and 
here we may find the quaint little Umbellifer, Bupkurum 
tenuis simum. 

Just within the coastline north-westerly from Yarmouth, 
occupying a space which may be roughly estimated at ten 
miles square, lies the Norfolk " Broad " district, which, 
where undisturbed, still remains a paradise for botanists, 
it contains several specialities two of them found nowhere 
else in England. Naias marina which looks at first sight 
almost like a seaweed, discovered in 1883 and Carex trinervis 
discovered in 1884 and three other plants almost as rare. 
Senecio palustris, Carex paradoxa, and Lychnothamnus stel- 
liger which last does not in some seasons develope the 
" stars " from which it takes its specific name : but the 
greatest interest of " Broadland " to the plant - lover 
consists in the enormous wealth of flowers which flourish 
in some parts of it — wide stretches of many colours — yellow 
and purple — Loosestrife {^Lysimachia ^vulgaris and Ly th- 
rum Salicaria) white and cream colour {^Pyrola rotundifolia 
and Spiraa ulmaria). Lilac shading off to red and purple 
(orchises of several kinds), mixed up with a dense crowd 
of common marsh weeds such as Ranunculi, Ragged Robin, 
and Marsh Marigold ; it is not the number of species but 
the enormous number of the individuals of each species that 
strikes one most in these morasses. The water itself is also 
crowded with water-weeds and flowers. Pond-weeds by 
the thousand which make but little show. Water-lilies, 
white and yellow. Bladder- Worts ( Utricularia) Batrachian 
Ranunculi, Polygonum amphibium. Water Plantains, and 
here and there dense clumps and ditches choked with the 
Water-Soldier (^Stratiotes aloides), with its sword-shaped 
aloe-like leaves and pure white flowers which seem in our 
day never to bear fruit with us, though its extraordinary 
shaped seed-pods have been found fossil in the county. 



Norfolk 

Reeds, grasses, and sedges hide both land and water. In 
some of these marshes milk parsley i^Peucedanum palustre) 
grows freely, and this plant is the food of the larva of 
the swallow-tail butterfly {^Papilio machaon). 

The Fens of the western side of the county have recently 
been identified as one of the latest known localities for 
Senecio paludosus one of very scarcest of British plants. 

Of the great middle portion of the county between the 
" Broads " on the east and the " Fens " on the west it 
is impossible within our limits to give more than a very 
slight sketch of the rarities which may reward a careful 
search. Starting from the south at Thetford we have 
Medicago sylvestris, Veronica verna and V. trlphyllos, 
udrtemtsia campestris, Scleranthus perenn'ts, and two grasses, 
Apera interrupt a and Festuca ambigua, and as a well- 
established alien, Erigeron canadense ; passing eastward we 
come to Harling, the home at one time, at all events, of 
Andromeda polifolia ; eastward still to Harleston, the 
vicinity of which affords the true " Oxlip " [Primula 
elatior, Jacq.) The botany of this district (and of the ad- 
joining portion of Suffolk) has been admirably described 
by the Rev. F. W. Galpin in his " Account of the 
Flowering Plants, Ferns and Allies, of Harleston " ; then 
to Ditchingham where we have Blackstonia perfoliata and 
Panicum glabrum. The northernmost portion of this line 
up to Attlebo rough is a very prolific ground for orchids, 
bee orchis, fly orchis, frog orchis {^Habenaria viridis), and 
great abundance of the commoner kinds ; Orchis pyrami- 
dalis has been seen here almost more plentiful than the 
hay crop among which it grew and the very rare Liparis 
loeselii still survives in one locality. There is also that very 
rare fern Lastrea cristata. 

Almost due north of Thetford is S waff ham, whose 
neighbourhood has afforded Phleum phalaroides ; thence 
eastward we pass Dereham, where the heavy lands give 
(if they have not all been stolen) great quantities of the 
commoner ferns, Polystichum of slightly varying forms 
202 



Botany in Norfolk 

in almost endless variety and plenty of Scolopendr'ium. 
Still eastward the country round Norwich has many good 
plants, Arabis perfoltata, Med'icago falcata, the Norfolk 
mullein i^Verhascum pulverulenturn) and in one locality 
there is still plenty of Gentiana pneumonanthe. From 
hence eastward to the " Broads " and northward to the 
sea, wherever you can find a scrap of original heathy, 
swampy bog, you will be well rewarded. Drosera^ some- 
times all three species, within a few yards ; Parnassia, 
Hypericum elodes, even Limosella aquatica, spaces of 
some few yards square pink with Anagall'is tenella, Butter- 
fly orchis in both forms {^Hahenaria hifolia and H. chlo- 
rantha) by the hundred, may all be found and Goody era 
repens a northern orchid not truly wild south of Cumber- 
land and Berwick has been found more than once. 

There now remains to be considered only the north- 
western portion of the county, containing a good deal of 
chalky and heathy upland, and furnishing many interesting 
plants. Veronica spicata has been recorded, but not con- 
firmed. Microcala jiliformis has certainly been found, 
and an Epipactis, thought by Mr Kirby Trimmer to be 
E. atrorubens ; there is also an old record of Draha muralis. 
There is a decidedly different facies of the flora of this dis- 
trict to that of the flora of mid and south Norfolk, the 
change travelling north-westerly from Norwich seems to 
occur somewhere about Walsingham. 

Some of our most interesting local plants are curiously 
sporadic and a visitor must not conclude that they are lost 
from their recorded localities simply because he cannot find 
them there ; for instance Scutellaria minor has been known in 
one locality for at least seventy years. A few years since, 
when the writer visited it, the ground was purple with the 
flowers of hundreds of plants ; three years afterwards not a 
plant could be found though the locality was in no way 
altered by drainage or otherwise, but this is no evidence of 
loss. Again Arabis perfoUata will be in abundance one year 
seeding freely, but for the next two or three years not a plant 

203 



Norfolk 

will reward search, but it reappears there or thereabouts 
after a time. The foxglove {^Digitalis purpurea) nvild, 
though there are plenty of escapes, is decidedly a scarce 
plant in the county, but in the year 1867 some ditches were 
" fyed out " at Horsey and from the mud thrown out from 
them arose a crop of foxgloves. Poa nemoralis is a rare 
grass about Norwich, but in two cases where loam dug from 
a depth of several feet has been spread about, a plentiful 
crop of it has arisen which has held its own for years but 
gradually diminishing. On the other hand some local 
plants show great pertinacity, the same banks in the neigh- 
bourhood of Norwich have afforded Medicago falcata and 
Verhascum pulverulentum whenever visited for more than 
half a century. Hardly any plants seem to be " lost " un- 
less their localities are permanently altered or destroyed ; of 
course, if a bog is drained or a hill-side ploughed up and 
sown with gorse for game-cover the plants must disappear, 
at all events for a time, and as the old walls of Norwich 
are pulled down, and they are fast disappearing, Holosteum 
umhellatum must go with them — but take it for all in all the 
flora of Norfolk still aifords as many species as it has ever 
done since it was first studied, for about as many species 
have been added to it of late years as are at all likely to 
have really disappeared. 

Many aliens, some intentionally introduced and others 
accidentally sown with foreign seeds, occur. Among the 
former such plants as Sp'iraa tomentosa an American and 
Sambucus racemosa the red-berried elder of Continental 
Europe, among the latter Alyssum calycinum^ Melilotus 
arvensh, Saponaria vaccaria, Asperula arvensis, Orohanche 
Jlavescens, these sometimes make good their hold for a year 
or two. Veronica tournefortii is a good example of an 
alien successfully establishing itself, for it is now in many 
places quite a weed. 

It is much to be desired that visitors either finding for 
themselves or being shown a locality for a rare plant, will 
exercise forbearance in over collection for themselves or 
204 



Botany in Norfolk 

indiscriminate communication of the exact place to less 
careful people. The conduct of a stranger who having 
been told of an exact locality for Senecio palustris (one of 
our scarcest plants) purposely destroyed the whole of it 
may be almost described as an outrage, nor is the conduct 
of those inconsiderate persons who tear up ferns by their 
roots and leave them to wither by the roadside much 
better. It has happened to the writer twice over by in- 
cautious betrayal of localities for one of our rarest ferns, 
to cause the disappearance of every root within a few years. 
The latest census of rarity among the flowering plants 
of Great Britain is the Ninth Edition of the " London 
Catalogue " published in 1895 ; in it England, Wales and 
Scotland are divided into one hundred and twelve counties 
and vice-counties. Any plant that does not occur in more 
than twelve of these divisions may fairly be considered 
" rare," although there may be plenty of it where it does 
grow. The following is a list of plants, most of them 
presumably native, which are or have been reported to be 
found in Norfolk which do not occur in more than twelve 
divisions : — 

Adonis autumnalis. Artemisia campestris . 

Aconitum napellus. Senecio paludosus . 
Roemeria hybrida. . ,, palustris. 

Draba muralis. Hypochoerts maculata. 

Sisymbrium irio. Lactuca scariola. 
Brassica oleracea. ,, saligna. 

Frankenia locuts. Sonchus palustris. 
Dianthus prolifer, „ augustif alius . 

Silene conica. Statice reticulata. 

,, otites. Primula elatior, J acq. 

Holosteum umbellatum, Microcala jiliformis. 

Medicago sylvestris. Limnanthemum peltatum. 

,, falcata. Pulmonaria officinalis. 

Trifolium ochroleucon. Verbascum pulverulentum. 
Tillaa muscosa. „ lychnitis. 

Sedum rupesire. V^eronica triphyllos. 
Lythrtim hyssopifolia. ,, "verna. 

Galium anglicum. Melampyrum cristatum. 

Gnaphalum luteo-album. Melampyrum arvense. 

205 



Norfolk 



Orobanche purpurea. 
Mentha alopecuroides. 

,, pubescens. 
Calamintha parviflora. 
Teucrium scordiiim. 
Herniaria glabra. 
Scleranthus perennis. 
Atriplex pedunculata. 
Salicornia radio am. 
Siiada fruticosa. 
Daphne mezereum. 
Hippophae rhamnoides . 
Liparis loeselii. 
Epipactis atro-rubens. 
JVLuscari racemosum. 
Ornithogalum pyrenaicum. 
Potamogeton acuminatus. 

,, trichoides. 

Naias marina. 



Scirpus triqueter. 
Carex paradoxa. 

,, ericetorum. 

„ trinervis. 
Panicum glabrum. 
Spartina stricta. 
Phleum phalaro'tdes . 
Polypogon monspeliensis. 

5, littoralis. 

Apera interrupta. 
Ammoph'tla balt'tca. 
Weingcerneria canes cens. 
Poa bulbosa. 
Festuca ambigua. 
Lastrea cristata. 

,, uliginosa. 
Lychnoihamniis stelltger. 
Nitella tenuissima. 



Those who wish for a full list of Norfolk plants may 
consult the Rev. Kirby Trimmer's " Flora of Norfolk and 
Supplement," numerous Papers in the Proceedings of the 
Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, the Rev. F. W. 
Galpin's " Flora of Harleston," Paget's " Natural History 
of Yarmouth," and the Rev. E. F. Linton's "Norfolk 
Notes," Journal of Botany^ June and July 1900. 



206 



ENTOMOLOGY IN NORFOLK 

By Claude Morley, F.E.S., &c. 

Every entomologist knows that particular species of insects 
are attached not only to particular climates and environ- 
ments but also, and to an even greater degree, to certain 
kinds of plants ; and these again are found only upon their 
own favourite kinds of supersoils. Peat underlaid at the 
depth of a few feet by white clay or marl is a formation 
found in England, I believe, only in East Anglia, and to it 
we owe the peculiar physical feature for which Norfolk is so 
widely celebrated — her Broads. Those to the north-east 
of Norwich are the most celebrated among naturalists, 
probably because they have been most worked ; but there is 
little doubt that the low-lying land on the south eastern and 
western borders of the county would yield good things if 
sufficiently drawn upon. For insects of higher taste is a 
more or less complete chain of low chalk hills running down 
the western centre of the county from Hunstanton towards 
Brandon, sometimes known as the East Anglian Heights ; 
the vicinity of Norwich, however, is, perhaps, more noted 
for its chalk-loving insects. The long range of sea coast is 
lavish of its own species, especially in the chalk-clifF 
districts ; most of it is low lying and constantly changing. 
In some places the sea appears to be retiring, and here the 
sand-dunes and old coast lines are very prolific — especially 
about Yarmouth, Cley, Hunstanton and Cromer. Norfolk has 
a total area of 1,308,440 acres, 12,000 of which are still so- 
called " waste " land. It is obvious, therefore, we shall not 
lack hunting-grounds and those, of their kind, the best in 
Britain ; it is well, however, to bear in mind trespassing is 

207 



Norfolk 

here an heinous crime. A great deal of this is heath-land 
upon a sandy or loamy bottom, which would scarcely repay 
cultivation. To the east of Norwich in several places the 
red and mammaliferous crags very nearly approach the 
surface, rendering the country yet more sterile. About 
Brandon and Thetford is what is usually known as the 
Breck District : this consists of plateaux of valley gravel 
underlaid by chalk and is famous for its unique production, 
some fifty miles inland, of many species of strictly maritime 
insects. Nevertheless, it is, of course, for the exclusively 
marsh species, to be found only in the Broad District, that 
the entomologist will visit Norfolk, consequently the best of 
these have been, as far as space allowed, noted below. 

Probably the majority of summer migrants, and of the 
resident entomologists also, devote themselves more or less 
exclusively to the butterflies and moths (or Lepidoptera), 
of which Norfolk boasts about the longest county list in 
Britain — roughly T450 species. I will, therefore, say a 
word or two which may guide them to the approximate 
headquarters of the rarer or more local kinds. Above all 
the Swallow- Tail is one of the beginner's greatest enthu- 
siasms. From the drained fens of Cambridgeshire it is 
fast disappearing and, for its sake, we may congratulate 
ourselves that the broads of Norfolk are of such a nature as 
to preclude a similar state of things obtaining with us. It 
is to be found in some numbers in all the fens of the Yare 
and Bure and I have five examples in my collection taken 
at Horning, one even in the churchyard, in 1897. The 
Marsh Fennel [Peucedanum palustre) is its principal food 
plant. An eye may with advantage be kept wide for the 
very rare Queen-of-Spain, which has been taken at Booton, 
Caister, Plumstead, Halvergate and Beachamwell. The 
Camberwell Beauty is probably commoner here than in most 
counties, which is, however, saying but little, though this was 
especially the case in 1872, when Antiopa occurred in all 
parts of the county and was seen by no means rarely in the 
north-east. The Large Copper is said to have occurred here, 
208 



Entomology in Norfolk 

and, considering the extent and nature of the fens, if it 
survives anywhere in Britain, which is more than doubtful, 
it is surely with us. The Mazarine Blue is said to have 
been found in the chalky districts in the old days. Most of 
the Hawks are recorded, including De'ilephila gal'ii from 
Yarmouth and Gillingham, and the doubtfully- British 
Chaerocampa nerii at Yarmouth, though south of the river. 
Lithosia muscerda is said to be confined to the Norfolk 
Broads, where it is not uncommon among the alders. It 
was at Horning that Curtis took great quantities of the 
Gypsey Moth, which is not now-a-days found in the wild . 
state in Britain, though it lingered about Cawston at all events 
till 1 86 1. The Essex Emerald is also said to have 
occurred, though sparingly, in the former locality. As I 
have already said, the post-glacial sands about Brandon 
yield a peculiar fauna and here are to be found, almost 
exclusively in Britain, Dianthaecia irregularis, Agrophila 
sulphuraluy Acidal'ia rubricata, Llthostege griseata, Spilodes 
sticticalis. Tinea imella, etc. Beachamwell was at one time 
a grand collecting ground, but it does not appear to have 
been worked for many years now ; it was here that Banhsia 
argentula, now confined to one or two localities in Ireland, 
was first found. Eubolia bipunctaria and Eriopsela fractifas" 
ciana are somewhat scarce on the chalk about Norwich but 
they are not found elsewhere in East Anglia. Diphtheria 
orion, too, occurs sparingly at Aldeby. Caister is almost 
the only place in Britain for Tapinostola elymi, where it was 
first found by Crotch in 1861. Nonagria brevdinea has 
never been discovered in the world outside Ranworth and 
Horning Broads, where it is found uncommonly every 
year and is one of Norfolk's great prizes. Hydrilla 
palustris, from Norwich, wants taking again badly, as does 
Cloantha perspicillaris, which occurred at Yarmouth in 1 84T. 
Like the larger moths, the Micros are very interesting 
and peculiar on account of their attachment to our peculiar 
plants. I will mention, however, only a very few of the 
more typical. Of the Pyralids, Lemiodes pulveralis and 

o 209 



Norfolk 

Spilodes sticticalis are both good things ; the former has 
occurred at Ranworth though it is elsewhere confined to 
the extreme south of England and the latter is only to be 
had in numbers in the Breck district about Brandon, whence 
came my own series. Norfolk has a monoply of Cr ambus 
fascelinellus from Yarmouth, and C. paludellus in the 
Broads. Anerastia farrella is found on only the Norfolk 
coast where it has been attracted to artificial light. A 
visit should certainly be paid to Lynn for Argyresthia 
atmor'iella, named after the indefatigable lepidopterist who 
first there discovered it in 1893 ; it is now found to be 
locally not uncommon. Nyctegretes achatinella is occasion- 
ally not rare on the Yarmouth sandhills, but occurs else- 
where only at Folkestone. These sandhills have a very 
rich fauna of their own including such things as Eupaecilia 
palUdana, Agrotis r'lpae and praecox, Leucania Uttoralis, etc. 
Of the rest Peronea perplexana, Serkoris doubledayana, 
Phoxopteryx paludana, Stigmonota erectana, EupaecUia degrey- 
ana (named after Lord Walsingham), Nothris verbascella^ 
Glyphipteryx schaenicolella, Elachista paludum, and the pretty 
little plume, Oxyptilus distans, are quite or very nearly 
confined to the Broads and Breck of Norfolk. 

To turn to the Coleoptera or Beetles, there is a great 
number which are found only in boggy and marshy places, 
because the plants upon which they feed, or because the 
plants upon which those insects subsist upon which they 
prey, are attached to such situations. The Fens constitute 
the last abiding place of many kinds of beetles, and even 
here, if we may rely upon the records of a hundred years 
ago, they are much less abundant than formerly. A great 
number of marsh species will at once suggest themselves to 
the coleopterist and I need mention only a very few of the 
eighteen hundred different kinds recorded from Norfolk, as 
especial prizes, the rencontre with which is worthy of publi- 
cation in the most scientific of journals. First and foremost, 
Carabus clathratus used at one time to be found in the 
Halvergate marshes and is recorded from the Suffolk 
210 



Entomology in Norfolk 

boundary as recently as 1858, though its capture was 
probably effected some years previously ; it is now almost 
exclusively confined to the highlands of Ireland and 
Scotland in the British Isles. A very pretty and ex- 
clusively fen species is Odacantha melanura, with which I 
have often met in the refuse on the banks of the Broads. 
CEtophorus hnperialis, which is somewhat similar in con- 
formation, appears to be confined to marshy places in the 
eastern counties. Pterostichus aterrimus was first taken in 
Britain at Horning and has been found in but few other 
localities ; it has not, however, turned up at all of recent 
years. Bradycellus placidus may be generally unearthed 
among rubbish in broadland by careful searching. Pogonus 
lur'idipennis was first known as British at Salhouse where 
it was originally somewhat common, but its particolored 
sheen has not been there seen since 1840 ; and it appears to 
have gone south to Sheppey. As might be expected the 
Hydradephaga or waterbeetles turn up in quantities and their 
phytophagous congeners, the Palpicornia, are well repre- 
sented ; of the former. Illy bins subaeneus seems to be 
confined to this county and its sister, Suffolk. The short- 
winged genus, StenuSf is also in fuller force here than 
probably elsewhere, and thousands may easily be turned 
up in the fens. In Norwich was published in 1825, 
Denny's " Monographia " of the brachypterous Clavicornia, 
so Norfolk presents for them classic ground. Onthophilus 
sulcatus, a very rare British species, originated in this 
county and is to be taken sparingly in odd situations on 
the higher ground ; Limnius troglodytes too, is hardly found 
elsewhere in Britain. The great Kirby of Barham first 
detected at Holme the beautiful Apion limonii and returned 
home exclaiming " Finis coronat opus." Many years ago 
Tropideres alb'irostris was found near Norwich and has not, 
I think, been rediscovered as British. The metallic genus 
Donac'ia is to be found in almost all its lovely species on 
the multitudinous water-plants. And last, though by no 
means least, Ceuthorhynchus quercett occurs at Horning 

211 



Norfolk 

alone in our isles, where it has been found by Messrs 
Brewer, Edwards and Elliman, as recently as 1895. 

Five hundred and thirty-six species of Hemiptera, 
which Order of insects includes those usually known as 
plant-lice, field -bugs, and froghoppers, are known to occur 
in Norfolk out of a total of about seven hundred and fifty 
in the whole of Britain. The majority of the species are 
strictly confined to their particular food-plants, so if, upon 
seeing a plant of willow-herb i^Epilohiurn) you should say 
"Here I shall find Dicyphus epilohii^^ there is little pro- 
bability of being disappointed. Several of these Hemip- 
terous species have been taken in Norfolk alone : Mr 
Thouless discovered Poeciloscytus 'vulneratus upon Galium 
verum on the Yarmouth Denes in September, and Idiocerus 
cupreus (probably the second specimen in the world), upon 
a sallow at Brandon. Nabis hoops is scarcely found any- 
where but at Lowestoft and Mousehold Heath, near 
Norwich, which latter was a great locality among the 
older entomologists of the first half of the century. Lygus 
atomarius, Lihurnla reyi (from Weybourne), several 
members of the genera Idiocerus and Cicadula, as well as 
Deltocephalus costalts (a fen species from Ranworth), D. 
coroniceps (on Coxford Heath), and the widely distributed 
Dicraneura similis, which was first detected here by Mr 
Edwards, are all kinds which have been taken in hardly 
any other localities in Britain, and should therefore certainly 
be assiduously searched for. Unlike other insects, however, 
coast Hemiptera do not appear to have lingered with the 
sea-sands in the Breck district and are scarce there. 
Lord Walsingham has, nevertheless, found at the adjacent 
Merton the very rare bat-bug (^Cimex pipistrelli'j. 

Norfolk will soon become classic ground for the Hymen- 
oPTERisT for here, during the past seventies and eighties, 
the great Bridgman, a collector of quite the first water 
was wont to roam. He first turned his attention to the 
Aculeate section — which comprises the ants, wasps, and 
bees — and discovered there more kinds than have been 
212 



Entomology in Norfolk 

found in any other county (excepting only the sister 
Suffolk). More than half the little family Chrysididae 
have been recorded, including the local and rare Cleptes 
nitidula, Hedychrum nobile, and Chrysis pustulosa from the 
neighbourhood of Norwich. The ants are to be met with 
in no unusual numbers but several of the interesting sand- 
wasps, which store up spiders, aphides, and grasshoppers 
for their young to feed upon, after digging little holes for 
their security, such as Crabro signatus, and C. anxius, from 
the marshes near Norwich, and C. panzeri, from Cromer, 
are found in only a few other counties. The bees are 
plentiful, and such rare things as Sphecodes ferruginatus, 
Andrena proxima, Nomada obtusifrons at Brundall, and 
A^. sexfasciata have occurred more or less sparingly. 
Brundall was formerly the headquarters of Macropis lab'tata 
and often visited by hymenopterists from afar ; this bee 
has, however, since been discovered in other parts of the 
country and is now abundant in Wicken Fen, Cambs. In 
all some 230 species have been recorded from the county. 
The sawflies (or Tenthredinidae) ., which lay their eggs 
beneath the cuticle of the leaves, often causing consequent 
swellings or galls, and whose larvae feed openly like the 
caterpillars of moths, are to be here met with in profusion 
by those few students who are interested iu their wondrous 
powers of parthenogenesis. Phyllotoma fumipenn'ts and 
Nematus Bridgmaniif which were originally discovered in 
the Brundall marshes about 1880, are the most noteworthy. 
During the early part of the century the county suffered 
much from the attacks of the Black Jack, which is the 
larva of a sawfly, Athalta spinarum, and appeared in such 
numbers as to destroy many thousands of acres of turnips 
upon whose tops they principally subsist. Mr Bridgman 
found a hundred and sixty kinds of this family in Norfolk, 
and, probably, no county has had its Ichneumonidae — 
four-winged flies, parasitic upon other kinds of insects — 
so thoroughly worked ; but, since this is a subject generally 
carefully avoided by the entomologist (for his peace of 

213 



Norfolk 

mind's sake ! ), it will be unnecessary to further refer to 
it. There are a large number of Braconidae in the 
Bridgman collection in the Norwich Castle Museum, but 
little has been published upon the subject and nothing 
whatever, I believe, about the remainder of the Norfolk 
H57menoptera. 

Nor am I aware that there is any recent literature relating 
to the remaining groups of insects. In the Neuroptera — 
the Dragonflies and Waterflies — this is the more regretable, 
since in their earlier stages they are entirely aquatic, and 
Norfolk, with her fens and broads, should, as Mr M'Lachlan 
anticipates, be able to give a good account of herself. Winter 
collected these beautiful insects about Aldeby and Beccles 
in i860, and put a few upon record [v. Ent. Wk. Int. ix. 
1 88 J, and at the latter locality I have taken the uncommon 
Libellula fulva and Aeschna mixta^ though south of the river. 
The Orthoptera — Grasshoppers and Crickets — of the 
eastern counties do not appear to excel in number nor 
variety. Xtphidium dorsale will, doubtless, be found abund- 
antly in all the marshes, as it is at Oulton, &c., south of the 
Waveney. The Land of the Broads must also yield a 
grand harvest and much food for study to that Dipterist, 
who is bold enough to attack a county list in which the 
tiny Nematocera would so largely figure, though he should 
have little difficulty in thence augmenting the British List. 



214 



GEOLOGY OF NORFOLK 

By F. W. Harmer, F.G.S. 

]\dembre Assoc'te Etr anger de la Societe Beige de Geologie. 

If a bicyclist were to cross England from Holyhead to 
Yarmouth he might, in the course of a few days, pass 
successively and almost in the chronological order of their 
deposition over strata comprising a representative series of 
the principal formations known to geological science, from 
the Archaean schists of Anglesea, to the modern estuarine 
deposits of the valley of the Yare. As he approached the 
confines of Norfolk, however, he would find he had left 
behind him the Palaeozoic, and all but the later portion of 
the Secondary or Mesozoic rocks. The prehistoric history 
of East Anglia deals only with the more recent chapters 
of the geological record. 



Hun.Wo''n°^:'"^ F.kenK.^^^'^^'" Norwich Ac.l* Y.r^cutK 



S« level 




N N w: 



<^Ai^Lr ? 



S.S.E. 



SECTION FROM HUNSTANTON TO YARMOUTH, SHOWING THE GEOLOGICAL 
STRUCTURE OF THE DISTRICT. 

The more important divisions of the strata exposed at 
the surface, or known from borings, in Norfolk are as 
follows : — 



215 



Norfolk 



Tertiary 

or 

Kainozoic. 


Recent. 


Blown sand, peat, estuarine, fluviatile, 
and lacustrine deposits. 


Pleistocene. 


Post-Glacial. 


Estuarine, and fluvia- 
tile deposits. 
Valley gravels. 


Upper Glacial. 


Plateau gravels. 
Chalky boulder Clay. 


Middle Glacial. 


Sand and gravel. 


Lower Glacial. 


Norwich brickearth. 

Contorted drift. 

Cromer Till. 

Pebble-beds 

(Westleton shingle). 

Leda myalis sands, and 
arctic freshwater bed, 
of the Cromer coast. 


Pliocene. 


Forest-bed series. 
Weybourn Crag. 
Chillesford beds. 
Norwich Crag. 


Eocene. 


London Clay. 

Woolwich and Reading beds. 


Secondary 

or 
Mesozoic 


Cretaceous. 


Chalk. 
Gault. 
Lower Greensand. 


Jurassic. 


Upper Oolite. Kimeridge Clay. 



The Mesozoic deposits of England east of the Pennine 
chain dip towards the east, resting against and upon each 
other as a row of books on a table might do, if they were 
made to lean over in one direction. Hence it is that, as 
we pass eastward from the midland counties to Norfolk, we 
cross successively over the upturned edges of the different 
216 



Geology of Norfolk 

secondary strata, from the Trias to the Chalk. The section 
will show the way in which this movement of upheaval 
towards the west and subsidence towards the east has affected 
the Oolitic and Cretaceous rocks of the county. The former, 
represented by the Kimer'idge Clay, appear only in the west 
of Norfolk, occupying a strip of low country bordering the 
fens, from whence they dip eastwards, disappearing beneath 
the Lower Greensand. The Kimeridge Clay is not well 
exposed in Norfolk, but may be studied in a large pit near 
the Great Eastern Railway, a mile or so east of Ely Station, 
where it is shown to consist of bluish -grey fossiliferous 
clay and shale, with septaria, large nodular concretions of 
argillaceous limestone. In deposits of this period, in other 
parts of England, there have been found remains of the 
great and extinct marine reptiles Icthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, 
Pliosaurus, and Teleosaurus, and of the Pterodactyls, 
enormous flying lizards. 

The Loiver Greensand is believed to be represented in 
the Hunstanton cliff section, and at Snettisham, where it 
is quarried for building, by a fine ferruginous conglomerate, 
known as Carstone, and at the latter place by clay and white 
" silver sand," used for glass-making. 

A bed of blue clay, probably the Gault, which is absent 
from the Hunstanton section, was met with at the bottom 
of well borings at Carrow Works, Norwich, and Holkham, 
and it comes to the surface near Downham Market. The 
Gault is largely used near Cambridge for brick - making. 
At Folkestone, in the south of England, it has been divided 
into a number of zones, each characterised by a different 
species of Ammonite. 

The Chalk is by far the most important formation present 
in Norfolk ; it underlies the greater part of the county, and 
attains a thickness at Norwith of about 1200 feet. Closely 
resembling in appearance and composition the globigerina 
ooze of the bed of the Atlantic, it must have originated 
under similar conditions, and in a sea of considerable depth 
which then extended in an easterly direction across north- 

217 



Norfolk 

western Europe from Normandy to Denmark. Except in 
the west of the county, it is covered by newer beds, 
and is exposed only along the sides of river valleys, as in 
that of the Wensum. For the reason before given, the 
lowest beds of the Chalk do not come to the surface except 
in the west of Norfolk, the upper portion of the formation 
having there been planed off and removed by denudation. 
It is probable that the Chalk was originally as thick toward 
Hunstanton as it is at Norwich, and that it extended west- 
ward over England far beyond its present limits. 

The oldest part of the Chalk, the well-known Red rock 
of Hunstanton, is a bed of limestone about 4 feet in thick- 
ness, stained by peroxide of iron. It has been regarded by 
some geologists as equivalent to the Gault, by others to 
the Upper Greensand ; it represents an early stage of the 
subsidence by which the deep sea conditions of the Chalk 
period were introduced over the East of England. Higher 
in the Cretaceous series occurs the Hard Chalk nvithout 
Jlint. From it have been obtained, near Stoke Ferry, the 
bones of Icthyosaurus, and some large Ammonites 2 feet 
in diameter. The Middle and Upper Chalk contain flint, 
derived from the decomposition of the siliceous organisms 
of the Chalk sea ; flint occurs in the former in mid Norfolk, 
as at Wells, in the form of tabular sheets ; and in the latter, 
further to the East, as nodules, in horizontal layers, and 
more rarely as paramoudras, large pear-shaped masses, 2 feet 
or more in length, arranged vertically one upon another. 
Among the characteristic fossils of the Upper Chalk, which 
at Norwich is 500 feet in thickness, may be mentioned 
Belemnitella mucronata, Terebratula carnea^ Rhynchonella 
plicat'ilis^ and Ananchytes o'vatus. The entire skeleton of a 
large marine reptile, Mosasaurus^ was found forty years ago 
at that place in a quarry near Bishops bridge. 

No beds of Eocene age have been observed at the surface 
in Norfolk, but 5 1 feet of the Woolivich and Reading Beds, 
and 305 feet of the London Clay, were met with in a well- 
boring at Messrs. L aeon's brewery at Yarmouth (see 
218 



Geology of Norfolk 

section) ; the latter is a marine deposit of fine muddy 
sediment, brought down by a river which probably flowed 
from the west. 

In Eocene times Great Britain enjoyed a warmer climate 
than it does at present, evidenced by the fact that fossil 
remains of palms, crocodiles, and turtles, have been found 
in the London Clay in the Isle of Sheppey. Up to and 
during the Eocene epoch, the physiography of the Euro- 
Asiatic continent differed widely from that of our own day, 
an ocean then extending from the Atlantic into Northern 
India, while such lofty mountain ranges as the Alps and 
the Himalayas, had not as yet come into existence. 

Before the deposition of the Pliocene deposits of East 
Anglia, however, separated longo tntewallo from those of the 
Eocene period, the distribution of land and water in Europe 
had to a great extent assumed its present form. The North 
Sea received then, as now, the drainage of the Rhine and 
its affluents, but it extended both to the east and the west 
somewhat beyond its present limits. The Crag beds of 
East Anglia (famed for the beauty and variety of their 
fossil mollusca), which in the form of an almost uninter- 
rupted sheet of sand, always crowded with shells, reach 
from Essex to Norfolk, are the littoral deposits of the 
Pliocene sea, having been accumulated against the shore as 
beaches, or near to it, as banks or shoals in shallow water. 
Two great changes were taking place during this epoch — 
one climatic, the other tectonic. A considerable percentage 
of the species of mollusca found in the oldest Crag beds, 
some of them survivors from Miocene times, are not known 
living ; as to the rest, the general character of the fauna is 
similar to that of the Mediterranean at the present day, 
the presumption being that the climate of the Eastern 
counties of England was somewhat warmer at that period 
than it now is. As the glacial period approached, colder 
conditions prevailed, the southern and the older shells 
gradually died out, while the North Sea was invaded by 
Scandinavian and arctic forms — at first in small, but afterwards 

219 



Norfolk 

in increasing numbers. Contemporaneously, an earth move- 
ment was in progress, by which the southern part of the 
Crag area was elevated, and the northern part depressed, 
the result being that, during the deposition of the Crag, the 
German Ocean gradually retreated towards the north. As 
these deposits were the marginal deposits of this sea, accumu- 
lating as it retired northwards, it follows that the oldest Crag 
beds, those containing a molluscan fauna of a southern char- 
acter, are to be found in the southern part of the Crag area, 
and the newest, in which northern shells predominate, towards 
the north. The shelly sands of Norfolk belong, therefore, 
to the newest portion of the series, to the period when boreal 
conditions were establishing themselves in these latitudes. 

The best known exposures of the Crag sands in Norfolk 
are at Bramerton, and at Thorpe, near Norwich. Among 
the more characteristic species of mollusca to be found at 
those places may be mentioned : — 

Purpura lapillus. * Astarte compressa. 

Cerithium tricinctum. * Tellina lata. 

Littorina littorea. ,, obHqua. 

Nucula Cobboldise. ,, prsetenuis. 

Cardium edule. Mactra ovalis. 

* Astarte boreaUs. ,, subtruncata. 

Those marked ^ are now confined to northern seas, as are 
Scalaria groenlandica, Natica clausa, IV. helicoideSf Leda 
oblongotdes, and Cardium groenlandicum, which occur, but 
less abundantly, in the Norwich Crag. 

At Surlingham, 4 miles to the east of Norwich, and at 
Wroxham and elsewhere in the valley of the Bure, are 
some festuarine deposits, known as the Chillesford Clay. 
They always contain, generally abundantly, minute flakes 
of mica, which it is suggested were derived from micaceous 
rocks either in the Ardennes, or in the highlands further 
to the south. These estuarine beds represent a still further 
stage of the retreat of the German Ocean northwards, when 
the part of Norfolk previously covered by the sea had 
220 



Geology of Norfolk 

emerged, and was traversed by an estuary, which, if this 
view is correct, must have been one of the channels through 
which the Rhine or the Meuse reached the sea. 

Of later date than the Chillesford Clay are some beds of 
Crag, occurring at Weybourn near Cromer, and at Belaugh, 
Wroxham, and elsewhere, a few miles north of Norwich, 
which contain very abundantly Tellina balthica, a shell still 
living on the Norfolk coast, but unknown from any older 
horizon of the Pliocene epoch. The sudden appearance of 
this mollusc in such extraordinary profusion at this stage 
points to an opening up of communication, by a continuance 
of the earth-movements before alluded to, between the 
North Sea and some other marine basin, possibly the Baltic, 
where it had previously established itself. 

Resting on these beds, and exposed on the coast only, are 
some fresh water and estuarine deposits, generally known 
by the somewhat misleading name of the Forest-bed. 
It is from them that the larger part of the magnificent col- 
lection of mammalian remains in the Norwich Museum 
have been obtained. These fossils do not occur as complete 
skeletons, preserved on the site of an ancient forest, as was 
formerly supposed, but are the drifted and fragmentary 
remains of animals which were surprised and carried away 
in time of flood by a river, probably the Rhine, flowing 
from the south, being afterwards, on their way to the sea, 
stranded and buried in its flood gravel, or in the muddy 
sediment of its estuary. The most characteristic forms of the 
so-called Forest-bed are the extinct and gigantic pachyderms, 
Elephas meridionalis and E. antiquus, but the remains of 
many species of deer occur in it, with those of Machairodus 
(the sabre-toothed tiger), hyena, cave bear, glutton, musk 
ox, elk, hippopotamus, and two species of rhinoceros. 

These deposits are overlaid by strata originating during 
the Great Ice Age, when Scandinavia and a considerable 
part of Great Britain and of Northern Europe was covered' 
by ice, as Greenland is now. The accumulations of the 
Glacial period are better represented in East Anglia than in 

221 



Norfolk 

any other part of England. They have been studied by 
many observers, and have given rise to a voluminous litera- 
ture and to much controversy. The arrangement given on 
page 216, and the views here expressed are, however, in the 
main, those proposed by the late Searles V. Wood, Jr., 
and the present writer.^ 

The initiatory stage of the Glacial period is represented 
on the Cromer coast by sands containing Leda myalls, and 
other northern shells, and by a freshwater bed in which the 
leaves of Betula nana (the Arctic birch) and Salix polaris 
(the Arctic willow) are common, and in other parts of 
Norfolk by beds of pebbly gravel, (possibly equivalent to 
the Westleton Shingle of Prestwich) overlying which occur 
near Norwich, especially to the north and east of that city, 
deposits of sandy clay, largely used for brickmaking, and 
these pass further north into the Till and Contorted Drift of 
the Cromer coast. Enormous ice-borne masses of marly 
chalk may be seen there in the Contorted Drift, as it was 
well called by Lyell, associated with beds of clay, sand, 
and gravel, folded and disturbed by the action of ice. 
Towards the north-west, as the chalk country is approached 
from which these masses of altered chalk may probably 
have been derived, the Loiver G/^^aa/ deposits assume a more 
marly character, as between Holt and Wells. In places, 
large boulders of igneous rock, sometimes scratched and 
striated by the action of ice, occur in the lower Glacial, 
some of them being, it is believed, of Scandinavian origin. 
It is thought that at this period an enormous glacier from 
the Baltic invaded the North Sea, and it may even have 
approached the coast of Norfolk. 

To the south-west of an irregular line drawn from Burnham 
Market near Wells, to Lowestoft, the lower Glacial beds 
disappear more or less completely, their place being taken 

1 British Association Reports (1868), Palseontographical Soc. 
(1872), etc. Reference is suggested to the geological map accom- 
panying the latter memoir, a copy of which is in the Norwich Free 
Library. 

222 



Geology of Norfolk 

by the Great Chalky Boulder Clay, a stifF tenacious deposit, 
which forms the heavy wheat-growing clay land of the 
Eastern Counties. It stretches in almost unbroken mass 
over central Norfolk and Suffolk, from Fakenham to the 
south of Essex, and can be traced into Lincolnshire in one 
direction, and into Buckinghamshire in another, representing, 
it is believed, the moraine profonde of a large ice-stream 
coming from the N.N.W. The chalky boulder clay is 
composed of material derived from the destruction of 
Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks, but it invariably contains, in 
great abundance, flint and small fragments of chalk, which 
give it a character of its own, by which it can be always 
and easily recognised. 

The Loiver Glacial beds are overlaid in many places by 
sands {^Middle Glacial), which to the north of Norwich form 
heaths, as at Horsford and Cawston. These sands pass 
under the chalky boulder clay [Upper Glacial), and near 
Yarmouth contain fossil mollusca, some of them being 
southern species. It seems that during the Middle Glacial 
period communication, was r^-opened between the German 
Ocean and seas to the south, and it is possible that 
the currents by which the southern shells were rein- 
troduced into the former, may have melted back to 
some extent and, for a time, the northern ice. Over- 
lying the chalky boulder clay, and generally occupying 
high ground, as at Strumpshaw Hill, six miles to the west 
of Norwich, and at Wymondham and elsewhere in central 
Norfolk, are some sporadic masses of coarse flood Plateau 
gravel, composed principally of flint, accumulated by currents 
during the melting of the East Anglican ice-sheet, when the 
excessive cold of the Glacial period was beginning to abate. 
These gravels often occur, as at Mousehold Heath near 
Norwich, at the very edge of the high ground overlooking 
the valleys, and could not have originated in their present 
position under existing circumstances. From the fact, how- 
ever, that patches of chalky boulder clay may be occasion- 
ally observed at the bottom of the valley, as near Thorpe 

223 



Norfolk 

Asylum, it is clear that the latter must at that time have 
assumed, more or less, its present form. The probable 
explanation seems to be that the ice melted first on the 
higher ground, eventually shrinking into the valleys, and 
that the valley of the river Wensum at Norwich, for 
example, was filled to the brim with ice when the flood 
gravels of Mousehold Heath were deposited. 

At a later period, when the Norfolk valleys were be- 
coming free from ice, but while it continued to exist else- 
where, floods still prevailed, but they were confined to the 
lower ground. Gravels of a finer character than those of 
the plateaux accumulated then nv'ithin the valleys, but in 
positions which show that the floods to which they were 
due reached a much higher level than do those of the 
present day. Near the Thorpe railway station at Norwich, 
for instance, are some gravels which wrap the sides of the 
valley to a height of perhaps thirty feet above the river, 
although they pass also under its bed. 

Whether man inhabited Norfolk before the Glacial 
period is still a quastio vexata, but uncivilized races, using 
unpolished flint weapons, certainly occupied the county 
during the deposition of the valley gravels, a palaeolithic 
implement having been found in them by the writer at 
Cringleford. The famous deposit at Hoxne near Diss, 
where more than lOO years ago these relics of primaeval 
man were first discovered, lies just beyond the confines of 
the county. 

In the valley of the Nar, in West Norfolk, are some 
brickearths, the sediment of an estuary formerly opening 
westward into the Wash, from which bones and teeth of 
the Mammoth, Ehphas prim'igenius, and of the woolly 
Rhinoceros, R. t'tchorhinus, with specimens of an arctic 
shell, Tellina lata, have been obtained. These deposits, 
though probably more recent than some of the valley 
gravels, belong also to the post-glacial series, to a period 
when the climate of Great Britain was colder than it is 
at present. 
224 



Geology of Norfolk 

During the post-glacial epoch, the comparative level of 
land and water in Norfolk varied from time to time. At 
one period the country stood higher than it now does, and 
England was joined to the continent. Hence the close 
resemblance between the fauna and flora of the two areas. 
At another time it probably stood somewhat lower. 

Eventually, however, the valleys of Norfolk became 
choked by the accumulation of fluviatile and estuarine mud, 
and by the growth of peat. The low marshy ground 
bordering rivers like the Yare or the Wensum, now em- 
banked and drained, were at no very distant period im- 
passable and waterlogged swamps, along the margin of 
which browsed herds of extinct forms of the wild oxen, 
Bos prtmigeniusy and Bos longifrons, whose fossil remains 
are occasionally found there, and may be seen in the 
Museum at Norwich. Peaty beds of similar character to 
these are still accumulating in the Broad district of East 
Norfolk, by the annual growth and decay of marsh plants. 

It is not possible, within the limit of a rapid sketch, to do 
justice to such a subject as that of the geological history 
of Norfolk. It is to be feared that there are in the county 
at present few serious workers in this important and fascin- 
ating field of enquiry, but much remains to be accomplished, 
and results of great scientific value and interest still await 
the diligent student. 



225 



SHOOTING AND FISHING IN NORFOLK 

By a. J. RuDD 

(i) Shooting 

Norfolk has, for many years, been celebrated as one of the 
most prolific counties in game and wild fowl. On its 
highly cultivated fields great quantities of partridges and 
hares are to be found ; while in the woods and coverts on 
the larger estates pheasants are reared by tens of thousands. 
The broads and marshes in the Eastern portion of the 
county afford shelter for wild-duck and snipe, while its very 
situation as a sea-board attracts woodcock and a host of 
migratory birds of every kind. 

Any one who takes a walk or travels by rail through 
Norfolk cannot help noticing the quantity of pheasants that 
are to be seen on every side, particularly in the heath 
districts, and in and around the woods and spinneys all over 
the county, but he must stand outside a covert on a big day 
to have any idea of the amount of birds Norfolk coverts 
will hold. It is no uncommon thing for two thousand 
pheasants to be picked up outside one wood after a really 
good drive. 

Pheasants are shot in a variety of ways in Norfolk. Driv- 
ing them out from their coverts to an adjacent wood, and then 
putting them back over the guns is the plan usually adopted 
on the best organised " shoots," and there is no doubt but 
that it is the most satisfactory way of showing game from a 
shooter's point of view, for, not only are the birds more 
easily directed over the guns when they are driven back to 
their favourite resorts, but the shots they afford when thus 
226 



Shooting and Fishing in Norfolk 

driven are of a thoroughly sporting character. Another 
method — and this is the one adopted on the smaller shoots — 
is to walk through the coverts with guns and beaters in line, 
care being taken to ensure the birds being driven to a 
"flushing-point" at the end of the wood at each drive, and 
then all shot in one grand battue at the end. The foregoing 
remarks only apply to " big days." On other days the 
outlying spinneys and hedgerows have to be beaten out to 
keep the birds within the limits of the estate ; and again on 
other occasions the cocks only will receive attention from 
the guns, to ensure a due proportion of them being left on 
the " shoot." 

Partridges abound all through the county on arable land and 
pasture, upland and marsh. Any land seems to suit these 
birds which have a happy knack of adapting themselves to 
their surroundings, provided the food supply is sufficient for 
their needs, and whether on the rich fertile soil of a Norfolk 
farm, or among the rank vegetation of the fens, this is always 
plentiful. The dryness of the climate, particularly at the 
period of the hatching of the young birds, also materially 
assists in the keeping up of a good head of partridges. 

The shooting of partridges is conducted in Norfolk in 
much the same way as in other parts of England. On 
many " shoots " the birds are walked up in the early part 
of the season, and later on are driven over the guns. On a 
few estates they are very little shot over till October, and 
are then killed at the same time as the pheasants. On other 
estates these two species of game birds are shot separately, 
especially on such as have not a heavy stock of pheasants. 
This applies to many of the smaller holdings, in which the 
partridge supplies the principal sport, the pheasants only 
receiving attention just before Christmas. There are, of 
course, in Norfolk, as elsewhere, some old-fashioned sports- 
men who like to kill their birds in the old-fashioned way, 
to whom the walk across the fields of roots, and the pleasure 
of seeing their dogs at work, is more than the bag at end of 
the day ; while on the other hand the more modern gunner 

227 



Norfolk 

prefers the birds to come over him as fast as their wings can 
carry them. Much has been said for and against both 
methods, but there is no doubt that driving the birds over 
the guns, by killing off the older and less prolific birds, has 
materially benefited the stock of partridges in the districts 
in which it has been judiciously carried out. In proof of 
this, one may say that nearly five thousand more birds have 
been killed in a season on an estate in this county than 
ever were killed in a season before the days of driving. 

Hares abound in Norfolk ; in fact they are too numerous 
in some parts to please many shooters, some of whom are of 
opinion that a large quantity of these animals on an estate 
militates against a large head of partridges. Whether this be 
true or not I should not like to assert, but I must say that in 
some cases where there are many hares there are but few birds. 
The chief objection to the hare is that it will sometimes spoil 
the sport in a field by running through the roots, and so put- 
ting up the birds. On some estates hares are spared by the 
guns for coursing, but on others they are shot with the birds. 
Rarely now is a special day devoted to them in Norfolk, as 
was the case some years ago when they were even more 
numerous than to-day. 

Immense quantities of rabbits are to be found on many 
farms, more especially on the light lands. At Brandon and 
Thetford there are warrens of considerable extent where 
they literally swarm. Here, in the autumn and winter 
months, thousands are shot and netted, and sent to London 
and other cities. Among the sandhills on the north coast 
of Norfolk they are also to be found in good numbers. 
At Waxham and Sea-Palling, their ranks were thinned to a 
great extent by the influx of the salt water during the gales 
and high tides in March 1898. During these gales the 
water poured over the hills and drowned the rabbits in 
hundreds. Nature, however, knows no loss, and the 
deluging of the warrens with salt water gives back to the 
land, and subsequently to the vegetation, just those ingredi- 
ents which the rabbits take from it ; and consequently the 
228 



Shooting and Fishing in Norfolk 

surviving rabbits thrive the better and are of a much higher 
quality, commanding a readier sale and fetching an increased 
price in the market. 

The Broads of Norfolk are preserved more for the sake 
of the wild fowl than the fishing, and being kept undisturbed 
in tiie spring, there still remain with us to breed a fair 
number of ducks which are augmented in the autumn and 
winter months by the arrival of great flocks of fowl from 
abroad. In years gone by the number of these latter was 
enormous ; the surface of the water on some of the broads 
being positively black with them. When the broads and 
rivers became frozen up, the fowl would betake themselves 
to the estuaries at Wells, Cley, and Yarmouth, Breydon 
Water, a salt lake at the latter place being a favourite 
rendezvous. Then the gunners of Yarmouth would prepare 
for action, and punts and guns, from the modest single- 
barrelled muzzle loader to the ponderous punt gun carrying 
a pound or more of shot, be called into requisition. At the 
beginning of the flood tide the punts were put off^, and, 
anxiously scanning the droves of fowl the gunners would 
await the covering of the " flats " to enable them to approach 
their quarry. As the tide rose, the fowl on the flats would 
get closer and closer together till they formed a dense mass. 
Then the punt gun would be fired, and the gunners would 
return, their punts often laden to the water's edge with the 
weight of the fowl. Since the marshes have been drained 
the number of migratory fowl has much decreased. The 
land, which a few years ago was marsh and swamp, has now 
been drained and forms valuable pasturage. Salt marshes, 
too, have been reclaimed, and there is less feeding ground 
for wild fowl than formerly ; consequently, when the birds 
do come, they find very little to satisfy their needs, and do 
not stay with us any length of time. Even now, on some 
of the more highly preserved broads, it is no uncommon 
thing to see a thousand duck rise in one dense cloud at the 
approach of the guns. Up they go and are soon out of 
sight, but in a short time they will come back, first in ones 

229 



Norfolk 

and twos, and then in larger numbers, affording some pretty 
shooting to the guns, who have taken care to secrete them- 
selves during their absence. Shooting the duck as they fly 
to their feeding grounds at dusk, is a favourite method of 
getting on terms with these wary birds. It is constantly 
carried on in the winter months all over the county, both 
inland, in the neighbourhood of the broads, and on the sea 
coast. On any evening in the season, near Cley, Blakeney, 
or Wells, the gunners of the district may be seen making 
for the spots which duck are known to cross in their flight. 
On a favourable night, with a strong wind to keep the duck 
well down, there is no better sport to be had. The duck are 
often accompanied by other fowl, such as curlew and knot, 
and the bag at the end of the flight is frequently of a most 
varied description. 

As a rule the free shootings of Norfolk are not very 
productive of sport. At Cley there is a stretch of about 
seven miles of mud flat left exposed at low tide, and between 
this flat and the sea there is sand covered with coarse her- 
bage, and intersected in all directions by dykes and creeks. 
This sand-bank is locally known as the " marrams," and 
gives cover to many of the smaller birds and to an occasional 
duck or teal. Here some extremely rare birds have been 
shot, such as the aquatic warbler and other scarce migrants, 
and consequently these " marrams " are always being scoured 
by collectors from all parts of the country. To the general 
sportsman, the muds afford the best prospects of sport at the 
right time. But I should add that unless the shooter happen 
to be on the spot just when the birds are coming in, he will 
have very poor sport and probably will leave the place in 
disgust. The best way to ensure sport at any of the places 
at which chiefly migratory birds are to be obtained is to 
arrange with one of the local gunners to send a telegram 
when the birds begin to arrive and to be prepared to go 
instantly on receipt of it. Leave everything to your man, 
who, for his own credit's sake, will instruct you as to what 
it is best to do. Sometimes, if the tide is beginning to ebb 
230 



Shooting and Fishing in Norfolk 

when a start is made, It may be advisable to charter a boat 
and go down the channel with the falling tide. Sometimes 
it is preferable to walk the muds, and at other times the 
shooter had better remain in hiding, while his man either 
drives the birds over him or attracts them to their doom by 
simulating their calls, an art at which some of those fowlers 
are adepts. The birds one may expect to shoot on a favour- 
able day are knot, stint or dunlin, red and green shanks and 
other waders, with an occasional curlew, plover, or duck. 
Wear a good stout pair of shooting boots and leggings when 
walking on the muds. Knee boots, if worn, should be 
strapped on to prevent their being pulled off by the mud, 
which is very tenacious, and into which one often sinks over 
one's ankles. At Cley there is no danger of going in any- 
where much deeper than the knees, but it is as well to cross 
the little creeks, which intersect the mud in all directions, as 
near to the channel as possible, because the soil is much 
harder where it is well washed by the current than higher 
up them. At Wells it is even more necessary to engage the 
services of one who knows the lay of the land, which is 
divided by deep channels that can only be crossed at certain 
places ; and if ignorant of the way one runs the risk of being 
caught by the incoming tide. Here the marshes are covered 
with coarse grass, which gives cover to all sorts of birds. 
Wild geese, duck, and other fowl of all kinds are shot here 
every winter ; as a rule the coarser the weather the better 
the sport. 

The tidal portions of the rivers, and such broads as 
Oulton, which are affected by the tide, are free to the 
shooter. On these, coots and water-hens are found in 
some quantities, especially when the dykes are frozen over, 
while an odd duck or two may be sometimes picked up, 
but generally the shooting on the rivers is not worth going 
after, except during a spell of sharp weather. 

In the autumn and winter months, especially during the 
prevalence of strong easterly winds, snipe visit this county 
in great numbers, and on some of the marshes, yield rare 

231 



Norfolk 

sport. Early in December 1899, two guns got ninety 
snipe in a short day's shooting on a marsh adjoining the 
river Yare. Woodcock are, at times, plentiful. Norfolk, 
jutting out from the mainland as it does, catches a lot of 
these and other birds in their migrations southwards. 

In years gone by, several species of birds used to visit 
our shores, which are now no longer to be seen. Of these 
by far the most important was the great bustard. This 
noble bird was formerly plentiful, and its capture brought a 
goodly sum to the fowlers in those days. The bittern 
again is a rare bird, only two or three at most being shot 
where a few years ago they abounded. ^ Like the ruff, 
which was once quite a common bird on the marshes of 
Norfolk, it has been gradually ousted from its former resorts 
and is now rarely seen. It is a sad fact that as man en- 
larges his sphere of influence, taking in land that has for 
ages been in a wild and uncultivated condition, he drives 
before him many interesting and in some cases valuable 
creatures, by destroying or spoiling their resorts : but so 
it is, and so it will be, till, in a few years, many of our 
winged visitors will either be exterminated, or will find 
other lands in which to pass the dreary days of winter, 
when they are frozen out of their Arctic homes. 

(2) Fishing 

Norfolk has been compared to a "piece of Holland, 
tacked on to England." This is to a great extent true 
of that part of the county which lies to the east of Norwich, 
and which has become known of late years as the " Land 
of the Broads." Here, for miles, the land is as flat as a 
billiard table, the monotony of the view being broken only 
by the drainage mills and the sails of passing yachts and 
wherries. Through this broad expanse of meadow and 
marsh three rivers wend their way to the sea — the Bure, 

1 A great many bitterns were seen, and I am sorry to say shot, in 
various parts of England during the winter of 1899-1900. (Ed.) 
232 



Shooting and Fishing in Norfolk 

Yare, and Waveney. All these rivers flow through the 
pleasantly undulating meadows of west Norfolk, before they 
enter the marsh, and in their upper reaches are charming 
little streams, containing myriads of roach and dace, and, 
in the case of the Bure, a fair number of indigenous trout. 
It is not of these upper waters however that this article will 
treat, but of the navigable parts of the rivers, where the 
angler will find some of the best coarse fishing in England, 
the fish being pike, perch, bream, roach, tench, rudd, ruffe, 
and eels. 

For fishing the Yare the angler had best make his head- 
quarters at the Yare Hotel at Brundall, " Coldham Hall " 
at Surlingham, the Ferry Inn at Buckenham or the Red 
House at Cantley. At any one of these houses he will 
find the accommodation excellent, the charges moderate and 
the proprietors thoroughly attentive to his needs. Boats in 
any quantity may be obtained at the inns, but it is necessary 
to provide oneself beforehand with bait, as also with tackle. 
On the Bure, the best houses are the King's Head and the 
Horseshoes at Wroxham, the Ferry Hotel, Swan and 
New Inns at Horning (three and a half miles by road from 
Wroxham station), and the Bridge Inn at Acle. For the 
broads at Barton and Hickling it is usual for anglers to stay 
at Stalham ; but for those who prefer a thoroughly quiet 
place to put up at for their holidays I would recommend 
the White Horse at Neatishead for Barton Broad. For 
Heigham Sounds and the river Thurne, the most con- 
venient place to stay at is the Bridge Hotel at Potter 
Heigham. To enable the angler to choose his district I 
may say that the fish to be caught at these places will be : 
(i) on the Yare, bream and roach; (2) on the Bure, the 
same fish, with an occasional perch; (3) on Barton Broad 
and Heigham Sounds, a good proportion of rudd ; these 
last are very sporting fish, rising well to a fly during the 
months of July, August, and September. To be really 
successful at Barton, it is essential that the angler should 
be able to cast a long line, as the water is very shallow 

233 



Norfolk 

and any attempt at approaching nearer than twenty yards 
to the water fished, would at once scare away the fish, 
perhaps for the rest of the day. 

Norfolk has long been celebrated for its pike, and 
Norfolk anglers boast of the largest fish ever taken in 
England being killed in their county. The pike in ques- 
tion was a magnificent specimen, measuring exactly four 
feet in length, and weighing on the day after its capture 
36 lbs. Other recorded and well authenticated specimens 
are fish of 33J, 31, 30, 29, 27J, 26, 25J, and 25 lbs., 
while fish of i 5 to 20 lbs. are taken every winter. Nor- 
folk had, for several years produced the heaviest fish of 
the season till the winter of 1898-9 when singularly enough 
the largest fish was caught in the Thames, but even then 
the eastern county was only beaten by ^ lb. 

Pike-fishing in Norfolk is quite a winter sport. In the 
summer and autumn numbers of pike are caught on spoon 
and other artificial baits trailed behind yachts and rowing 
boats. It is rare however for any of the monster fish to 
be thus taken. The angler, who would become possessed 
of one of these giants, must obtain the requisite permission 
to fish one of the preserved broads in December, January 
or February. Then the fish are generally sufficiently on 
the feed to enable the angler to get some sport, and on 
a really good day on a first class water, bags of a dozen 
or more big fish may often be obtained. The best day 
that the writer has ever participated in produced fourteen 
fish, ranging from 7 lbs. to 24 lbs., to two rods. 

Perch are found in all the rivers of Norfolk, but not in a 
sufficiently large quantity to be worth specially fishing for. 
This is a great pity, for the perch is the very best fish to be 
found in the district, both for its determined fight for life 
and liberty when hooked, and also for its excellence on the 
table. And for its personal beauty is the perch admired. 
The perch's lovely coat of mail, barred with five stripes of 
black, and adorned with fins of the brightest vermilion 
make it one of the handsomest of fishes. The only time 

234 



Shooting and Fishing in Norfolk 

when any great bags of perch are made is when the roach 
are depositing their spawn at the sides of the rivers and 
dykes, and the perch follow them up and eat this spawn as 
fast as their appetites urge them to. At the beginning of 
June, when this is taking place, fair numbers are caught 
near the lower entrance of Wroxham Broad, the baits used 
being a lobworm or minnow fished as close to the bank as 
possible. When the angler is using a lob or brandling as a 
bait for bream, he sometimes comes across a shoal of perch 
and they are also frequently taken on both live and dead 
baits when one is fishing for pike in winter. 

Bream are to be found in all the middle and lower 
reaches of the main rivers of the county, the muddy 
bottoms of the broads and slow flowing rivers being emi- 
nently suited to their sluggish nature. When well on 
the feed, they may be caught in great quantities, as many 
as twenty stones weight having been taken in a single day's 
fishing by two rods. The bream is rather a pretty fish 
when young, being bright and silvery, but when it attains a 
respectable size, it is a great brown creature, slow and 
heavy in movement, giving only moderate sport on the 
hook and being useless when caught although there are 
some people who eat the bream and profess to like it. 
Bream spawn in the last week of May or the beginning 
of June and are then rarely taken, however much the 
angler may try to tempt them. When engaged in this 
duty they are worth seeing. Immense numbers of great 
fish, rolling about on the top of the water in all directions, 
some with their back fins above the surface, all so busily 
occupied that they have no time for eating or anything 
but the business in hand. Bream attain to an immense 
size in some of the waters of Norfolk, the largest being 
those found in the Wensum above the mills at Costessy. 
These fish are not natives of the stream, but were put in 
some years ago by a resident of Drayton, and have grown 
to an enormous extent, specimens of seven pounds to eight 
and a half pounds being occasionally taken. I am happy to 

235 



Norfolk 

say that I have the largest yet caught, a fine fish of nine and 
a quarter pounds. On the Yare and Bure fish up to five 
pounds are taken every year. 

Roach are found everywhere in Norfolk, as in other 
parts of England. Like the bream they thrive amazingly 
on our rivers and broads, and grand specimens are caught 
frequently. The largest roach in England are to be found 
in this county, the finest specimen on record being in the 
possession of the Norwich Angling Club. This fish 
weighed three pounds two ounces, and was caught in the 
Bure at South Walsham. On November 2nd 1899, a 
roach of two pounds fifteen ounces was taken at Horning. 
Roach are out of condition at the same time as bream, and 
therefore should not be fished for during May and June. 

Tench inhabit the broads in considerable numbers, but 
owing to their shy disposition are not very often taken by 
the angler, except during hot thundery weather in July and 
August, and then only a few are caught in comparison with 
the immense number which must exist in these waters. 
The summer of 1899 was particularly favourable to the 
angler as far as these fish were concerned, several up to 
four and a half pounds being taken. 

Rudd abounds in such waters as Barton Broad, Heigham 
Sounds and in fact in most of the broads connected with 
the Bure, and give capital sport to both bottom and fly 
fisher. A strong fish with powerful fins, the rudd takes 
a lot of handling, and unless its determined rush to get 
under a favourite boulder be checked at the outset the 
angler will stand little chance of bringing it to the net. 
The rudd (or Roud, as it is frequently called in Norfolk) 
is somewhat like the roach in appearance, but its fins are 
redder and its general colour rather more golden. The 
distinguishing feature is the position of the dorsal fin, which 
is at some distance behind the ventral fin instead of being 
directly over it, as in the case of the roach. 

Ruffe are so numerous as at times to become a nuisance 
to the angler. On some days one catches nothing but 
236 



Shooting and Fishing in Norfolk 

ruffes, and great then is the angler's chagrin. Poor little 
ruffe ! If only it grew bigger, it would be considered one 
of our most sporting fish. 

Eels, like ruffes, are often a great source of annoyance to 
the bream fisherman. They inhabit all our waters in count- 
less millions, and seem to be always hungry and ready to 
take the angler's baits. Immense quantities are caught 
during the year by men who get their living by their " eel- 
sets " ; these " eel-sets " are large nets set across the rivers 
at intervals and into which the eels swim at night in their 
migration to the sea. The eels taken are sent to London 
and other large cities, where they command a ready sale 
and fetch a good price, Norfolk eels being second only to 
those of the Lincolnshire fens. 

I have said nothing about the carp which, although 
plentiful enough in the Yare, are very rarely taken by 
the rod fisherman. Every year they may be seen spawning 
in the vicinity of Surlingham, but it is some years since 
one was caught on rod and line. 

The roach and bream fisherman will find July and 
August the best months for sport. Let him try the Yare 
from Brundall to Cantley, the Bure from Wroxham to 
Acle, or the Waveney between Beccles and Somerleyton 
and he will find — granted favourable conditions of course — 
that he will soon fill his basket with the various species of 
fish with which these rivers abound. 

The tackle necessary for fishing these waters are, first, 
the rod, which should be from twelve to fourteen feet 
in length, light and stiff, and fitted with upright rings of fair 
size to enable the angler to cast far enough to command a 
reasonable swim in front of him. A free running reel, of 
about three inches in diameter, is the most useful, and it 
should hold at least thirty yards of fine silk line. For 
floats, one or two large pelican quills and some smaller 
ones of goose or porcupine quill, or perhaps even better, 
a few of the reed floats one generally finds in a Norfolk 
angler's basket, will be ample for both roach and bream. 

237 



Norfolk 

Let the angler be careful to fish with gut, finest both in 
quality and thickness that he can get, for on this will depend 
in a great measure his success or the reverse. The hooks, 
it need scarcely be said, should be of the best, and tied on 
gut rather finer than the cast. A landing net, disgorger, and 
a capacious bag or basket in which to carry tackle and fish, 
will complete the outfit, and the angler may then proceed to 
his fishing. Most fishing in Norfolk is done from boats, 
which are moored parallel with the stream, a little way from 
the bank, and in as sheltered a position as possible, with 
mooring poles well driven down into the bed of the river. 
Having fixed the boat, the next thing is to plumb the 
depth, and set the float at such a distance from the hook 
that the latter shall swim along just clear of the bottom. 
Now throw in the ground bait, which may be of boiled 
wheat, barley meal, or that sold ready for use by the tackle- 
makers, and put on the hook bait. This should be a lob or 
brandling worm for bream, and for roach a piece of bread 
paste or three or four gentles. The line is cast into the 
stream in the direction from which the tide or current is 
coming, and allowed to travel down past the boat without 
check, unless the bait be taken by a fish, in which case the 
float will be drawn down, or at any rate slightly agitated. 
On seeing this the angler should at once strike. Let this 
be done smartly, but at the same time gently, so as not to 
endanger the tackle or the hold on the fish, and let the fish 
be played carefully yet firmly, keeping it at the top of the 
water till exhausted, when it may be drawn to the side of 
the boat and lifted out with the landing net. Now a fish is 
landed ; now a fish is lost, perhaps to scare away the rest for 
a time. Should the latter happen, the angler must throw in 
some ground bait to entice the fish back again round the boat. 
The great thing to be observed in fishing these waters, par- 
ticularly the parts nearest the sea, is the constantly varying 
depth, which necessitates the occasional alteration of the 
height of the float on the line to ensure the hook always 
keeping on or near the bottom of the river. Should the 
238 



Shooting and Fishing in Norfolk 

water fished be much affected by the tide, the angler will 
find it much to his advantage to substitute a ledger for the 
float tackle. In using this tackle, which consists of a length 
of gut to which are attached two hooks, the line is cast out 
in a contrary direction to that recommended for the float 
tackle. When this is done the tide carries the line away 
from the angler, and, pressing on it, has a tendency to keep 
the bait in its proper position on the bottom, whereas, if it 
were-cast upstream it would be constantly drifting in toward 
the angler, and he would with difliculty tell when a fish had 
taken his bait. In fishing with the ledger it is absolutely 
necessary for the angler to keep perfectly still, as any move- 
ment of the boat prevents the feeling of a bite, and it is only 
by the feel that one can know when a fish is at the bait. 
One of the best baits that can be used on a ledger 
is a large piece of bread paste, as big as the end of 
one's finger. Let the hook be buried completely in 
this, and a handful of ground bait be squeezed round 
the paste. The ground bait will soon be washed off, 
and the hook bait exposed^ to the fishes' view in the 
most attractive manner. Sometimes fish go ofl" the feed in 
a most unaccountable manner. In this case, if any pike 
tackle be handy, it is often worth laying it out to try to get 
the marauder out of the swim, if it is his presence there 
that is keeping away the roach and bream. If no pike 
can be caught the angler should try the effect of more 
ground bait, but be careful not to feed the fish too much. 

Fly-fishing on the broads is a delightful pastime. An 
ordinary trout rod and line and any of the thick-bodied flies 
will do well enough, the best, perhaps, being the red and 
black palmers, the black gnat, governor, and coachman. 
Sometimes a bunch of six or eight gentles on a fair-sized 
hook, cast like a fly, will be found very killing. Whichever 
is used, it is as well to have one or two slices of bread 
moored near the reeds to attract the fish and keep them 
together, and also to form some sort of mark at which to aim 
the bait in casting. 



SEA FISHING OFF NORFOLK 

By E. a. Croxon 

On the Norfolk coast sea-fishing is not appreciated or prac- 
tised to the extent it ought to be. Although a few natives 
amuse themselves by fishing from beach, pier, or boat, when 
circumstances are favourable, and occasionally a few visitors 
join them, it is not generally known what enjoyable sport is 
easily obtainable. In the early part of the season (September 
and October), when the weather is fairly warm, you may 
with comfort fish from pier or boat ; but the fishing I 
myself prefer is what is known as "casting" from the 
beach. For this I find a frosty morning best, and I use 
three or four lines to keep myself warm by attending to 
them. For casting you require a fairly thin but strong line 
from eighty to a hundred yards in length, and about a dozen 
hooks, with a lead weighing about three-quarters of a pound. 
The hooks used vary considerably in shape and size ; but I 
prefer black Limericks of medium size, which keep their 
point longer than white ones when they come in contact 
with the shingle. The hooks should be placed on the line 
about three feet apart, and attached to a snood ^ about a 
foot in length. The lines complete with lead, hooks, and 
reel, can be bought at most of the seaside towns ; the price 
should be two-and-ninepence or three shillings, according 
to the quality of the line. A pole six feet in length, with 
a groove cut in top, is required for casting the line, and 
can be bought for about a shilling. The baits are sandworms, 

1 The snood is the piece of line (which may either be manilla, 
cotton, or gut), by which the hook is attached to the line proper. 
— E.A.C. 
240 



Sea Fishing off Norfolk 

mussels, clams, whelks, herrings, and mackerel. The mussel 
is a very taking bait for whiting, but it must always be bound 
on the hooks for casting, although it can be used in the 
ordinary way for pier or boat-fishing with rod or small 
hand-line, and two or three hooks. Sandworms I find the 
best bait for codling, which will take this when other baits 
have failed. Sandworms, or " lug bait," as they are called, 
can be bought for a shilling per hundred, and in some places 
a pint may be purchased at the same price. Of course 
beach-fishing can only be indulged in where the water is 
fairly deep. Where the beach is flat it is best to hire a 
boat and row into deep water. For boat-fishing a moder- 
ately stout rod is required. An ordinary pike rod is as 
good as anything, with a medium-sized wooden winch, 
which must work very freely. The tackle I have been most 
successful with is a sliding lead weighing about four ounces, 
on gimp, with two hooks below and one above the lead. 
If the tide is running rather strong a larger lead can be used. 
For whiting and dabs a calm day with a westerly wind is 
best, but for codling-fishing from the beach an easterly 
breeze, with a slightly choppy sea, is most favourable to 
sport. In casting, a beginner should be careful not to lay 
any hooks behind him before throwing out, as there may be 
a possibility of his ear being carried out to sea with the line. 
When laying the line on the beach lay it from left to right, 
commencing with the lead, toggle, and the hooks a yard or two 
from the water's edge. The line should be neatly laid further 
up the beach, with care not to get any part of the line, or even 
the reel, to the left of the lead. When the hooks have been 
properly baited, fix the button at the end of toggle into the 
groove at the end of the pole, give two or three gentle 
swings, and cast the line into the sea. It is best for a 
beginner to throw gently at first, or the button may slip from 
the pole before intended, and the pole go seawards instead of 
the line. When baiting with sandworms thread them on 
the hooks. If the worms are of medium size, say two or 
three inches, a whole one can be used ; but occasionally you 

Q 241 



Norfolk 

get a large one of six or seven inches, which, when partly 
threaded on one hook, can be nipped off and used for baiting 
the next. If the worms are alive and in good condition 
they will remain on the hooks fairly well (provided the line is 
not jerked too much in casting). When dead and soft they 
require binding on, for which a piece of manilla cord, cut 
into lengths of about a foot and untwisted, is useful. When 
hauling in the line lay it on the beach as before. If small 
or medium-sized fish are hooked, pull in at a moderate pace ; 
but a large cod, of say ten or twelve pounds, requires a 
little humouring. If the fish swims in quickly, pull in the 
slack line as sharply as possible. If, on the other hand, it 
stops and seems a dead weight, do not attempt to strain the 
line too much, but with a few gentle pulls get the fish to 
swim shorewards. In all cases it is advisable to keep the 
line as taut as possible. 



242 



CYCLING IN NORFOLK 

By H. Morriss 

The main highways of Norfolk present few difficulties to 
the majority of cyclists, and compared with neighbouring 
counties the surface of the roads is generally in good con- 
dition. This improvement has been very noticeable since 
the establishment of County Councils, and cyclists who 
remember well hair-breadth escapes when mounted on the 
old high bicycle, find on revisiting their former resorts 
that many terrors have vanished. Even now room for 
improvement exists, although much care is certainly ex- 
pended on the difficult bits. - Upon the whole, however, 
the roads must be considered good, and in some districts 
even fast. The climatic conditions which but slightly 
affect the roads in some counties, are more difficult to deal 
with effectually in Norfolk. The crown of the road 
rapidly cuts up when exposed to long periods of drought, 
consequently the months of July, August and September, 
when the greatest number of holiday-seekers come to the 
Land of the Broads, are, unfortunately, the particular 
months when the roads are at their worst. Under the 
healing influence of Spring showers and Autumn mists, 
Norfolk affords the cyclist some fine bits of riding, and 
whether pace or comfort be the aim of the traveller, 
it is attainable at will. 

Suppose you are coming down from town for a fort- 
night's easy touring in Norfolk, with as much as possible 
of the sea-coast included. From Ipswich the road deviates 
towards Norfolk's border, and if you choose, you may 

243 



Norfolk 

remain in Suffolk even as far as the borders of Great 
Yarmouth itself, and enter Norfolk by the famous sea- 
port. 

But a pleasanter way by far is the main Norwich road 
which leads by some twenty-two miles of village life to 
the ancient White Hart at Scole, known as Scole Inn. 
Turning to the right here, and forsaking Norwich for a 
time, a pleasant undulating surface brings you to Harleston, 
whence a fast run leads through pretty scenery made up 
of river, marsh, and fenland to a protruding hill in Suffolk 
which juts across this route to Yarmouth, turns the river 
Waveney out of its course and marks the site of Roger 
Bigod's ancient Castle of Bungay. Once through the 
little town the road turns sharply eastward again by a huge 
malting at Ditchingham (a mile from Rider Haggard's 
famous Farm and the Hall and Lake) runs a straight course 
to Kirby Cane, then by Geldeston Hall to Gillingham again 
through marshy country, turns slightly here to left and right 
by an old ivy-covered steeple and gives scope on approaching 
Toft-Monks for the user of the free-wheel. A run down 
hill brings you to a bleak wind-swept tract of country 
somewhat like Holland, and should the wind be favourable 
a rapid pace will result over the two miles of Dam leading 
to St Olaves " Bell " when railway and river have been 
crossed. Haddiscoe Station Bridge has long been a terror. 
It is positively dangerous for any but experienced lady- 
riders to attempt, and more than one man has regretted 
his valour in crossing the bridge. The famous Fritton Decoy 
is the next object of interest, and may be seen on the right 
hand just after a sharp rise through the Suffolk village. 
When Yarmouth is full of trippers, the roads are a maze 
of rough dusty ruts, and if these trippers are out for the 
usual country drives on every description of brake and 
char-a-banc, the entry into the town is not an agreeable 
one for the cyclist ; but in early Summer or Autumn the 
road is not so cut up, and good riding' can be obtained until 
Southtown Road is reached. All sorts and conditions of 
244 



Cycling in Norfolk 

cycles exist in Yarmouth, and a day spent there will 
reveal to you a truly wonderful variety of hired machines. 
A large and well managed Cycling Club exists here with 
head-quarters at "the Cromwell" on the quay, and is 
called the Great Yarmouth Wheelers. Both ladies and 
gentlemen take part in certain of the runs and picnics, 
notices of which are posted up regularly. If you choose 
Yarmouth as your headquarters for a while, many pleasant 
rides out and home may be made and various places of 
interest visited — the travelling generally being on fairly level 
roads. Perhaps, however, you may prefer to cycle through 
the famous Broad district and make for Cromer, taking at 
once the most favoured run in the whole county. Passing St 
Nicholas Church on the right, and journeying straight on to 
Caister (the remains of the old Castle and Manor are off 
the main road to the left) you soon reach the lovely villages 
of Ormesby, the road winding through shady avenues of 
trees past well-kept gardens and orchards and cutting in two 
the famous Broad near which is the Eel's Foot Inn. Thickly 
wooded Rollesby next claims attention, and then the 
cycle bears you on to Potter- Heigham on the river 
Thurne, where there are many trim yachts and pleasant, 
cooling breezes. Five miles of narrow winding road brings 
you to tiny Stalham, famous in election times for its 
enthusiasm, aud a further stretch of winding road, through 
quiet but pretty villages to North Walsham, a town with 
some claims to attention. Before the loss of its spire, 147 
feet in height, the grand church must have been a conspicu- 
ous land-mark, and what remains is still worth seeing. 
Worstead, a parish which in remote times was of sufficient 
importance to give its name to its manufactures, lies only 
three miles to the south-east. Beautifully shaded roads 
lead from North Walsham on by Gunton House and 
Park to the junction with the Aylsham Road to Cromer ; 
when, due attention being paid to the N.C.U. caution 
board after passing the railway station, Cromer will be 
reached. 

24S 



Norfolk 

A run out from Cromer by Overstrand and Sidestrand 
to Mundesley, will reveal many of Norfolk's best features. 
After exploring the district round Cromer, other rides will 
lead you through the woodland scenery of the Sheringhams 
and on to Holt, where, before proceeding again seawards to 
Wells, detours should be made in order to visit the mansion 
of Lord Hastings at Melton Constable, with its park stocked 
with red and fallow deer ; and also, notwithstanding the 
cross-country routes, to Walsingham in order to take a peep 
at the ruins of the Priory which contained the shrine of 
Our Lady of Walsingham. You will -thus follow on cycle 
in the footsteps of many a bare-footed pilgrim of old. 
Walsingham Abbey grounds, if open, are also worth a visit. 
There is not very much to attract you in Wells itself; but 
do not miss Holkham Park, whose evergreen oaks and other 
noble trees overshadow perfect cycling roads. The Hall, 
to which admission can be obtained only by special permis- 
sion, contains a valuable collection of art treasures. Leaving 
the Park at the west lodge it will be easy for the cyclist if 
he desires, to ride on to Nelson's birthplace, Burnham 
Thorpe; and thence by Burnham Market and Docking 
over fairly good roads to Heacham. 

Turning northward again, you may reach the beautiful 
red and white cliffs of Hunstanton, beloved of geologists. 
Then come Sandringham, Castle Rising, and Kings Lynn, 
and this is a route which takes you through delightful pine 
woods and a charming undulating country. At Lynn you 
come in touch with the former days of cycle road records. 
Many an old rider, such as G. P. Mills and Holbein, has 
dashed under the old South Gate, only to obtain the neces- 
sary check, a signature of some London club official, and then 
away, faster than ever, to regain the Great North Road by 
Wisbech and Peterborough. From Lynn, good roads lead 
to East Winch ; but from there the road narrows in the 
curves before Narborough, widening again over the chalk 
hills by the railway cutting to SwafFham, which town will 
be readily known by its welcome appearance after a tedious 
246 



Cycling in Norfolk 

bit of straight road. If time is no object, a visit to Castle 
Acre priory, leaving the main road at Narborough for 
this purpose, will well repay you. By Necton and Fran- 
sham the scenery is more attractive, but still somewhat 
commonplace. As the road winds round into East Dereham, 
however, the country improves, and the sixteen miles to 
Norwich are over undulating surface, for the greater part 
well-wooded, especially after leaving Tuddenham. The 
entrance into Norwich is by a capital wide road, and if you 
have had a day's hard riding you will better appreciate its 
downward slope. 

Of Norwich, from a cycling point of view, perhaps the 
least said the better. The streets are mostly narrow and the 
paving has been so much interfered with for sewage schemes 
and tram-line laying that it must be some time before all 
the unpleasantness of riding in the city is removed. On a 
fine Tuesday in summer no more delightful route than the 
following can be chosen : Aylsham Road, St Faith's 
Stratton Strawless (a lovely avenue of woods) Hevingham, 
Aylsham, and Blickling Gardens, which on this day in 
summer are free to the public. Here you may pass a very 
pleasant hour, lying upon the greensward and admiring the 
wealth of colour afforded by the old garden ; or indulging 
in a stroll in the maze of gravel walks. The rest over, 
ride by way of North Walsham from Aylsham, and then 
turn towards Norwich again ; noting on the journey the 
beauties of Westwick and the glimpse of river at Coltis- 
hall which should tempt you to visit also Wroxham 
Broad. 

Another plan is to start out on the Yarmouth road 
through Thorpe and Whitlingham, pass Blofield, and pull 
up at prettily situated Acle. For the purpose of puzzling 
out a road that delights some minds turn here for Free- 
thorpe and Reedham, which some folk say was a seaport in 
the times of the Vikings. Crossing the Yare at Reedham 
Ferry is a novel experience. After that is over make for 
tiny Loddon. From Loddon a fine road leads by Langley 

247 



Norfolk 

Park and Thurton, through Framingham and Bixley to' 
Trowse Bridge, where Colman's Works and Carrow House 
adjoin Bracondale Hill. 

Still another interesting ride from Norwich is by New- 
market Road to Hethersett and Wymondham (a favourite 
resort for Norwich cyclists) over the fast level road to 
Attleborough, and so to Thetford. The return journey 
will be by the narrow roads between the numerous fern- 
covered rabbit warrens to Watton, near which is Merton 
Hall. This road leads through wooded country to Hing- 
ham, skirting Kimberley Park, mounting the heights of 
Colney and so back to the City once more. When at 
Thetford the return may be made, if preferred, through 
more rabbit country to East Harling, which is not far from 
Quidenham Park, the seat of the Earl of Albemarle who 
as Viscount Bury was President of the N.C.U. The road 
winds and descends rapidly to Lopham and then becomes 
more level and leads through a pretty district to Roydon 
and Diss. The main street turns at the base of a steep hill 
and leads on to Scole Inn, and if desirous of reaching Lon- 
don you can leave Norfolk straightaway. 

Another peep at Norfolk can be obtained by following 
through Dickleburgh the up and down road to Long 
Stratton and Newton Flotman, which leads by Harford 
Bridge to Norwich. From here another route for London 
is by way of Poringland and Brooke (a very pretty spot), 
by Woodton and Ditchingham Hall to Bungay, where 
the Suffolk route to Ipswich is by way of Halesworth. 

In conclusion, a word about the Eastern Counties Centre 
of the N.C.U., which was founded in Norwich and thanks 
to admirable management, has developed into a most useful 
organisation. In 1897 the Earlham Road Track was the 
scene of some of the N.C.U. Championships, and few who 
were present will ever forget the sternly contested events. 
Cromer and Great Yarmouth also possess tracks worthy of 
the name, but most local sports are held on grass courses. 

A list of places where the cyclist may find suitable ac- 
248 



Cycling in Norfolk 



commodation and refreshment, and, if necessary, seek oat 
the repair shops, follows : — 



Acle, 

Attleborough, 

Aylsham, 

Blofield, 

Brooke, 

Burnham Market, 

Cley, near the Sea, 

Coltishall, 

Cromer, 

Dereham, 

Dersingham, 

Diss, 

Ditchingham, 

Docking, 

Downham, 

Drayton, 

Fakenham, 

Harleston, 

Hingham, 

Holt, 

Hunstanton, 

Loddon, 

Lynn, 

Mundesley, 

Norwich, 

Do. 
North Walsham, 
Reepham, 
Scole, 

Sheringham, 
Stalham, 
Stratton, 
SwafFham, 
Tacolnestone, 



Queen's Head Hotel. . 
Angel Hotel. 
Dog Hotel. 
Globe Hotel. 
King's Head Inn. 
Thomas Temp. Hotel. 
George Hotel. 
White Horse Inn. 
Imperial Hotel. 
King's Arms Hotel. 
Coach and Horses Inn. 
King's Head Hotel. 
The Falcon Inn. 
The Hare Hotel. 
Castle Hotel. 
The Cock Hotel. 
Lion Hotel. 
Magpie Hotel. 
The White Hart Hotel. 
The Feathers Hotel. 
Robert's Temp. Hotel. 
Swan Hotel. 
Duke's Head Hotel. 
Royal Hotel. 
Maid's Head Hotel. 
Gt. Eastern Hotel. 
Angel Hotel. 
King's Arms Inn. 
White Hart Inn. 
Sheringham Hotel. 
Railway Hotel. 
Swan Inn. 

Walker's Temp. Hotel. 
Pelican Inn. 



249 



Norfolk 



Thetford, 

Toft Monks, 

Walsingham, 

Watton, 

Wells, 

Wymondham, 



Anchor Hotel. 
Cyclists' Rest. 
Black Lion Hotel. 
The Railway Hotel. 
The Crown Hotel. 
King's Head Hotel. 



Great Yarmouth, The Cromwell Temp. Hotel. 



250 



IDart 31331 

THE CHIEF PLACES OF INTEREST 
IN NORFOLK. 

In NORWICH :— 

The Cathedral (pp. 20-22). 

The Castle and its Museum (pp. 26-30). 

St Andrew's Hall (p. 23). 

The Shirehall (p. 33). 

St Peter Mancroft Church (p. 24). 

Mousehold Heath (pp. 31-33). 

In YARMOUTH :— 

St Nicholas Church (pp. 60-61). 

The Old Tolhouse. 

The Fishermen's Hospital. 

Nelson's Monument. 

The South Quay. 

The Star Hotel and its Nelson Room. 

In KING'S LYNN :— 

Greyfriars Tower (p. 114). 

Red Mount Chapel (p. 113). 

South Gate (p. 113). 

The Custom House (p. 116). 

The Parish and St Nicholas Churches (p. 114). 

The Docks. 

The chief Ruined Castles are : — 

Caister (pp. 78-80), nearest station Caister. 
Castle Acre (p. 128), nearest station Swaflham. 

251 



Norfolk 



The chief Ruined Castles — continued. 

Castle Rising (pp. 109-10), nearest station North Wootton. 
Burgh (a Roman Stronghold) (pp. 182-3), nearest station Belton. 
Bungay (in Suffolk, but in Broadland), nearest station Bungay. 

Ruined Abbeys and Priories : — 

Walsingham (pp. 94-5), nearest station Walsingham. 
Bromholm (p. 83), nearest station North Walsham. 
Binham (pp. 95-6), nearest station Walsingham. 
Beeston (p. 89), nearest station Cromer. 
Castle Acre (p. 128), nearest station Swaffham. 
Thetford (p. 50), nearest station Thetford. 

St Benet's (pp. 166-8), nearest station Wroxham or Potter 
Heigham. 

The best-preserved Roman Camps are — 

Caistor (p. 39), nearest station Svvainsthorpe. 

Burgh (pp. 182-3), nearest station Belton. 

Tasburgh, nearest station Flordon. 

" Bunn's Bank " at Old Buckenham, nearest station Eccles Road 

or Attleborough. 
Holkham, nearest station Holkham. 
Castle Acre (p. 128), nearest station Swaffham. 

The most interesting Prehistoric Remains are : — 

"The Devil's Dyke." 

(This is a remarkable earthwork, probably of Icenic con- 
struction, extending from Narborough to Caldecott, a distance 
of nine miles. It can be seen best at Beechamwell, a parish 
5 m. S. from Narborough station. ) 

"Shrieking Pits " of Aylmerton (p. 89), nearest station Cromer. 

" Grimes' Graves " (p. 55), nearest station Brandon. 

" Castle Hill" at Thetford (p. 50), nearest station Thetford. 

Earthworks at Castle Acre (p. 128), nearest station Swaffham. 

The chief Country Seats, Tudor Houses, etc. , are : — 

Sandringham Hall (pp. 103-8), nearest station Dersingham. 
Holkham Hall (pp. 98-99), nearest station Holkham. 
Z52 



Chief Places of Interest 



The chief Country Seats, Tudor Houses ^ etc. — contimted. 
Houghton Hall (pp. 129-32), nearest station Massingham. 
Blickling Hall (pp. 133-40), nearest station Aylsham. 
Raynham Hall (see Gazetteer), nearest station Raynham Park. 
Kimberley Hall (p. 46), nearest station Kimberley. 
Hunstanton Hall (pp. loo-i), nearest station Hunstanton. 
Melton Constable Hall (see Gazetteer), nearest station Melton 

Constable. 
Cossey Old Hall (pp. 121-2), nearest station Drayton. 
Barningham Winter Hall (see Gazetteer), nearest station Holt. 
East Barsham Hall (p. 95), nearest station Fakenham. 
Oxborough Hall (see Gazetteer), most convenient station, Swaff- 
ham. 



The finest ecclesiastical Norman work will be found in Norwich 
Cathedral and the churches of 

St Nicholas, Yarmouth (pp. 60-61), nearest station Yarmouth. 
Wymondham (p. 42), nearest station Wymondham. 
Attleborough (p. 47), nearest station Attleborough. 
Castle Rising (pp. iio-ii), nearest station North Wootton. 
St Margaret's, Lynn (p. 114), nearest station Lynn. 
Walsoken, nearest station Wisbech. 
Binham (pp. 95-6), nearest station Walsingham. 
Haddiscoe, nearest station Haddiscoe. 
Babingley, nearest station Wolferton. 

Other Churches well worthy of a visit are those at 

Worstead (p. 175), nearest station Worstead. 

Aylsham (pp. 134-5), nearest station Aylsham. 

Knapton, nearest station Knapton. 

Paston (pp. 83-84), nearest station Knapton. 

Cley (pp. 92-93), nearest station Holt. 

Cawston, nearest station Cawston. 

Salle, nearest station Reepham. 

East Dereham (p. 123), nearest station East Dereham. 

St Nicholas, Lynn (p. 115), nearest station Lynn. 

Dersingham (p. 108), nearest station Dersingham. 

Terrington St Clement's, nearest station Terrington. 

Ingham (p. 174), nearest station Stalham. 



Norfolk 



The best Screens are at 

Ranworth (p. i68), nearest station Salhouse. 

Worstead (p. 175), nearest station Worstead. 

Cawston, nearest station Cawston. 

Salle, nearest station Reepham. 

Attleborough (p. 47), nearest station Attleborough. 



254 



GAZETTEER. 



ACLE, — A small town on the Bure with a station 8^ m. W. from 
Yarmouth, Its foxirteenth century church contains a fine oak 
screen and an ancient font. A few remains of Weybridge Priory, 
founded by Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, in the reign of Edward 
I. for canons of the Augustinian Order, are to be seen in the 
parish. This is a well-known Broadland angling resort, and a 
convenient place for obtaining yachting necessaries. Rowing 
boats may be hired here. The inns where yachtsmen and other 
visitors find accommodation are the King's Head, Queen's Head, 
and Bridge Angel. 

Acre, South. — A parish in the valley of the Nar, 4 m. N. from 
Swaffham station. The church, an ancient building in the Early 
English style, contains some sixteenth century brasses, and, 
among others, a monument to Sir Edward Barkham, Lord 
Mayor of London in 162 1, and another to Sir Eudo Harsicke, 
dating from about 1248. 

Acre, West (p, 128). — A village in the valley of the Nar, 3 m. N,E. 
from Narborough station. Near the church are the ruins of a 
priory founded by Ralph de Toni in the reign of William I. 

Alborough, — A village 5 m. N. from Aylsham. In its church are 
some fifteenth century brasses. 

Alburgh, — A village i m. N, from Homersfield station. The church 
is mainly in the Perpendicular style, but contains some Early 
English portions. 

Alby. — A scattered village 5 m, N.E. from Aylsham. 

Aldeby (p, 188), — A village in the Waveney Valley, with a station 
on the Beccles and Yarmouth line. The church is in the Early 
English style and has a fine Norman doorway. Some remains 
of a small priory, founded in the reign of Henry I., form part of 
the Priory Farm buildings. 

Alderford. — A village i^ m. E. from Lenwade station. The church 
is a small structure in the Early English style. 

Alethorpe. — A parish of one farm i| m. N.E. from Fakenham, 

AlpinGTON, — A village 6 m. S,E. from Norwich, 

^55 



Norfolk 



Anmer. — A village 4^ m. E. from Dersingham station. The church, 
a flint and stone building in the Perpendicular style, stands in the 
park of Anmer Hall. 

Antingham. — A village 2J m. N.W. from North Walsham. The 
river Ant has its source here at a spot known as Antingham 
Ponds. There are two churches in the churchyard, but one, that 
of St Margaret, is in ruins, only the tower and part of the nave 
remaining. St Mary's is in the Decorated style. 

Appleton. — A decayed parish adjoining Flitcham. 

Arminghall. — A village 2 m. S. by E. from Norwich. The church 
is chiefly Early English. The old Hall, now converted into 
cottages, has a finely sculptured porch. An old house near the 
church bears the inscription — ' ' Pray for the soul of Master 
William Ely, who caused this to be made into a hospital in the 
year 1487." 

AsHBY St Mary. — A village 3 m. S.W. from Buckenham station. 
The church, a flint structure in the Early English style, has a 
fine Norman south porch. 

,Ashby-cum-Oby. — A united parish 2 m. S.S.W. from Potter 
Heigham station. The church has all but disappeared. 

ASHILL. — A village 3 m. N.W. from Watton station. The church 
is a Gothic structure with a clerestoried nave. Its nave and 
chancel are divided by a carved oak screen. 

AsHMANHAUGH. — A parish 2 m. N. from Wroxham station. 

AsHWELLTHORPE. — A village with a station on the Wymondham and 
Forncett line. Its Early English church contains the tomb 
of Sir Edmund de Thorpe, who was envoy from Henry V. to 
the Duke of Burgundy, and slain at the siege of Lover's Castle 
in Normandy, his body being brought here for burial. The re- 
cumbent effigies of the knight and his wife are fine work, engraved 
by Stothard. The north chapel has five stained windows, with 
the arms of the Thorpe, Bourchier, Knyvet, Wilson and Berners 
families, also a brass dated 1561. The font was given to the 
church in 1660 by Lady Knyvet. The Hall, a modernised 
Elizabethan mansion, has been the seat of the Thorpe, Bour- 
chier, Knyvet and Berners families. A ballad quoted by Blom- 
field in his " History of Norfolk" relates how, at the beginning 
of the seventeenth century, a stranger appeared at Christmas 
time at this hall and caused an acorn to turn suddenly into a 
great oak, the branches of which filled the hall. The tree was 
felled, but could not be removed until two goslings came and drew 
it away. 

AsHWiCKEN. — A parish i J m. N. from East Winch station. 

AsLACTON. — A village 2 m. N.W. from Tivetshall station. The 
church is mainly Norman, with a round tower supposed to be 
Saxon. 
256 



Gazetteer 



Attleborough (p. 47). — A small market town 15 m. S.W. from 
Norwich, with a station on the Norwich and Thetford line. The 
church is a fine structure chiefly Early English, but partly 
Norman, It has a clerestoried nave and two chapels ; and con- 
tains some fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth century monuments 
and tablets. Its ancient western screen is of very elaborate 
workmanship. The choir which was originally the chapel of a 
college founded by Sir Robert Mortimer in 1387 has disappeared ; 
the existing one was built some time later. In the central 
aisle is buried Captain John Gibbs, who, in the days of Charles 
II., for a wager, drove a light chaise and four horses up and down 
a deep hollow called the Devil's Ditch, on Newmarket Heath. 
The chief inns are the Royal and the Griffin. 

Attlebridge. — A village on the Wensum, with a station on the 
Norwich and Melton Constable line. The church is a small 
Perpendicular flint building. 

Aylmerton (p. 89). — A coast parish 3 m. W.S.W. from Cromer. 
Its Perpendicular church has a thirteenth century round tower 
and contains an old oak screen and a chancel rail adorned with 
curious poppy -heads. There are some ruins of a chantry chapel 
on the north side. On the hills between Aylmerton and Runt on 
are traces of an entrenchment called a Roman camp. Near by 
are the famous "Shrieking Pits," of which there are said to be 
at least 2000. They are believed to be portions of the dwellings 
of some pre-historic inhabitants of East Anglia. Similar pits are 
to be seen on Beeston Heath and at Weybourne, places in this 
neighbourhood ; and at Marsham near Aylsham ; also in other 
counties, more particularly in Oxfordshire and on Dartmoor. 

Aylsham (pp. 134-5). — An ancient market town on the Bure, with 
stations on the Great Eastern and Great Northern and Midland 
Joint railways. It occupies a very pleasant position in the midst 
of a well-wooded district called the " Garden of Norfolk." The 
church is believed to have been founded by John of Gaunt. 
Aylsham stations are the nearest to Blickling Hall, one of the 
finest country houses in Norfolk, described in Itinerary X. The 
River Bure is navigable to wherries as far up its course as 
Aylsham. The chief inns are the Black Boys and the Dog. 

Babingley (p. 108). — A parish included in the Prince of Wales's 
Sandringham Estate, 2 m. E. from Wolferton station. The 
church, which stands in a meadow near the railway, is a building 
in the Decorated! style, supposed to occupy the site on which St 
Felix built the first Christian church in East Anglia. It contains 
the remains of a Norman sedilia in the chancel. Near the few 
cottages in this parish is a portion of an old wayside cross. 

Baconsthorpe. — A parish 3 m. E.S.E. from Holt station. Its 
church, chiefly Perpendicular, contains some interesting monu- 
ments of the Heydon family, dating from the fifteenth century. 
Opening into the vestry is an Easter sepulchre. Baconsthorpe 

R 257 



Norfolk 



Hall, the old home of the Heydons, has been allowed to fall into 
decay ; but is still a picturesque relic of the Tudor period. 

BACTON (p. 83).— A coast parish 5 m. N.E. from North Walsham 
station. This parish comprises the hamlets of Bacton Green and 
Bromholm, and is famous for its ruins of Bromholm Priory. The 
"Rood of Bromholm," as the relic was called for which this 
priory was renowned, purported to be a piece of the true cross. It 
was said to have been carried away from the Imperial chapel at 
Constantinople by an English chaplain of the Emperor, Baldwin 
of Flanders. On reaching England the chaplain offered to sell 
the relic to the Benedictines of St Albans, who, however, doubted 
its authenticity and refused to purchase. It was eventually 
accepted by the prior of Bromholm ; and in 1223 such miracles 
were ascribed to it that its fame spread all over the country and 
even to the Continent. Henry III. visited the priory in 1233. 
About two centuries later. Sir John Paston, a member of a well- 
known Norfolk family, who had distinguished himself in London, 
was buried in the church. On the latter occasion, according to 
Harrod, "A barber was occupied five days in smartening up the 
monks for the ceremony." Something further about this famous 
priory will be found in the chapter " By the Wild North Sea." 

Bagthorpe. — A village 4 m. S.E. from Docking station. 

Bale. — A parish 2 m. N.E. from Thursford station. 

BanhaM. — A village 3I m. E. by S. from Eccles Road station. It 
has a fine Perpendicular church in which is a wooden effigy of its 
founder, Sir Hugh Bardolph. The village is an important centre 
of cider-making, which has been carried on here for nearly 200 
years. 

Banningham. — A scattered village 2| m. N.E. from Aylsham. 

Barford. — A village 5 m. N. by W. from Wymondham. The 
church is a small building with two altars at the east end of the 
nave. 

Barmer. — A parish 4 m. S.E. from Docking station. 

Barney. — A village f m. from Thursford station. 

Barnham Broom. — A village 2| m. N. from Kimberley station. 

Barningham, Little. — A village 3 m. from Corpusty station. 

Barningham Norwood. — A parish 5 m. E. by S. from Holt. 

Barningham Winter. — A parish 4I m. E.S.E. from Holt. The 
church, partly in ruins, stands in the park of Barningham Hall, 
a mansion in the Tudor style, with a fine west front with double 
dormers. The house was built by Sir Edward Paston in 1612, 
but at the beginning of the nineteenth century was enlarged and 
its south front altered according to the designs of Humphrey 
Repton, the landscape gardener. . . 

258 



Gazetteer 



Barsham, East. — A parish 3I m. N. from Fakenham. A portion 
of the tower of an earlier church forms the porch of the present 
one. The fine Tudor Hall erected in the reign of Henry VII., 
and formerly the seat of the Calthorpe family, is now a farmhouse 
partly in ruins. Even now it is considered " one of the richest 
examples of ornamental brickwork " extant, and some of its hand- 
some chimneys and turrets are in good preservation. 

Barsham, North. — A small parish i^ m. from Walsingham station. 
The church contains a stone coffin dug up in an adjacent field. 

Barsham, West. — A parish 2% m. S. from Walsingham station. 
The church is chiefly in the Gothic style, but some parts of it are 
Saxon and Norman. Its tower has disappeared. 

Barton Bendish. — A village 4 m. N. from Stoke Ferry station. 
There were formerly three churches here, but one of them, that of 
All Saints, was pulled down a little more than a century ago. 
St Andrew's Church is a decorated structure with a fine late Nor- 
man doorway, and two Norman windows in the north side of the 
nave. The rood-loft staircase is intact. Some of the benches 
are nearly 300 years old. St Mary's Church has in its western 
gable a Norman arch once a doorway to All Saints. It contains 
some remains of a mediaeval painting. Barton Bendish Hall, for 
a long time the seat of the Berney family, contains portions of an 
earlier mansion purchased by the Hare family in the reign of 
Charles II. It is now a farmhouse. 

Barton Turf. — A village 4 m. N.E. from Wroxham station. Its 
church is a fine Perpendicular building noted for its painted rood 
screen, on the panels of which are depicted St Appolonia, St Zita, 
St Barbara, and the Heavenly Hierarchy. A screen in the south 
side bears paintings of Henry VI. , St Edward, St Edmund, and 
St Olave. Here are also some good fifteenth century brasses, and 
a mural tablet to Anthony Norris, an antiquary whose M.S. col- 
lections are now in the possession of the Frere family. Barton 
Broad, a fine sheet of water connected with the river Ant, is in 
this parish. Boats for rowing on the broad may be hired here, 
and good fishing enjoyed. 

Barwick. — A parish 2 m. E. from Docking station. 

Bawburgh. — A village on the Yare, 4 m. W. from Hethersett station. 
The church (of St Mary and St Walstan), is chiefly in the Perpen- 
dicular style, but with a Norman tower. In it are several old 
brasses and a good carved screen. St Walstan was a local saint 
said to have worked as a field labourer in this neighbourhood. 
He was buried here in the eleventh century, and his tomb was the 
resort of many pilgrims. St Walstan's Well, on the Rectory 
Farm, was at one time reputed to possess great healing powers. 

Bawdeswell. — A village 3 m. S.E. from Foulsham station. 

Bawsey. — A parish, with a station called Gayton Road, 2 J m, E. by 
S. from Lynn. The chiu-ch is in ruins. 

259 



Norfolk 



Bayfield. — A parish on the Glaven, 2J m. N.W. from Holt station. 
The church is an ivy-clad ruin. 

Beckham, East. — A parish 2J m. S. from Sheringham station. 

Beckham, West. — A parish 2 ra. S, from Sheringham station. 

Bedingham. — A parish 4 m. N.W. from Earsham station. The 
church is a large Perpendicular building, with two chapels 
formerly used by the inhabitants of two adjoining hamlets. The 
heart of a member of the Bruce family who died abroad is said 
to be buried under a stone in the church. 

Beechamwell. — A village 5 m. S.W. from Swaffham. Its Early 
English church has an ancient round tower, and contains two 
fifteenth century brasses. A curious earthwork about 9 miles 
long, known as the " Devil's Dyke," is to be seen on the western 
side of this parish. It extends from Narborough to Caldecott. 

Beeston. — A large village 2 m. N.E. from Fransham station. The 
church has a carved screen. The rectory house was formerly 
surrounded by a moat. It was burnt down in the reign of James I. 
and rebuilt on the same site. 

Beeston Regis (p. 89). — A coast parish 3 m. W.N.W. from Cromer. 
The church has a fine roof, and contains some remains of a 
painted screen. Within the bounds of the parish are the ruins 
of an Augustinian priory founded by Lady Elizabeth Cressy in 
the reign of King John. 

Beeston St Andrew. — A village i\ m. W. from Salhouse station. 
The church has disappeared. 

Beeston St Lawrence. — A parish 3 m. W. from Wroxham 
station. Its ancient flint and stone church contains some fine 
monuments of the Preston family, whose seat was until recently 
at Beeston Hall, and who distinguished themselves as supporters 
of the Royalist cause during the civil wars. Jacob Preston of 
Beeston waited upon Charles I. during his imprisonment, and 
received from his royal master an emerald ring. 

Beetley. — A parish 3 m. N. by W. from Dereham. In the church 
chancel are the remains of a finely carved piscina. 

Beighton. — A village 2 m. S.W. from Acle station. Its church, a 
fine building in the Decorated style, contains a Norman font and 
ancient oak chest. 

Belaugh. — A village on the Bure, i m. W. from Wroxham station. 
The handsome screen in the church gave offence to a Puritan 
trooper, who "rubbed out" the faces of the twelve Apostles. 
Belaugh Broad (12 acres) is in this parish. 

Bessingham. — A parish 6 m. E.S.E. from Cromer. A mound here 
called " The Castle " was probably a Roman camp. 

Besthorpe. — A scattered village 1 m. N.E. from Attleborough. 
Its church is a cruciform Decorated building containing a fine 
260 



Gazetteer 



monument to members of the Drury family, whose seat was 
Besthorpe Hall. This hall was built in 1590. The crests of Sir 
William Drury and Viscount Kilmorey are over its east front. 
The walls of an old tilting ground may be seen near the hall. 

Bexwell. — A parish i^ m. from Downham Market. The church is 
in the Norman and Early English styles, with a round tower sur- 
mounted by an octagonal belfry. The pulpit is of Caen stone, 
and is adorned with an alabaster figure of Christ bearing the 
Cross. 

BiLLiNGFORD. — A village \\ m. E. from North Elmham station. 
The church is a flint building in the Early English style, with a 
clerestoried nave of four bays. There are piscinas in the chancel 
and north aisle, and near the south doorway is a mutilated stoup. 
Beck Hall, in this parish, was an hospital for poor travellers, 
founded by William de Bee in the reign of Henry HI. 

BiLLiNGFORD or Pyrleston. — A Straggling village 3 m. E. from 
Diss. 

BiLLOCKBY. — A parish 2 J m. from Acle station. The church is 
partly in ruins. 

BiLNEY, East. — A village 3 m. W. from North Elmham station. 
Part of the church tower was thrown down during Kett's 
Rebellion. The cottage in which lived Thomas Bilney, who 
was burnt as a heretic at Norwich in 1531, stands in the vil- 
lage, and contains a curiously carved ceiling of black wood. 

BiLNEY, West. — A village x\ m. E. from East Winch station. 

BiNHAM. — A large village 5 m. S.E. by E. from Wells. Its priory 

church and ruins are described on pp. 95-96. 
Bintree. — A parish 2 m. E. from County School station. 
BiRCHAM, Great. ^ — A village 3 m. S. from Docking station. 
Bircham, Newton. — A small village 2 m. S. from Docking station. 
BiRCHAM Tofts. — A village 3 m, S. from Docking station. 

Bittering, Little. — A village 3 m. N. from Wendling station. Its 
Early English church contains a Norman font and Jacobean read- 
ing desk and manorial pew. The site of an old manor house 
here is surrounded by a moat. 

Bixley. — A village 3 m. S.E. from Norwich. The church (of St 
Wandregesilius) is a modern building, with an ancient embattled 
tower. 

Blakeney. — A small coast town 5J m. N.N.W. from Holt station. 
Its church, which stands on an eminence south of the town, is a fine 
building in the Early and Later English styles, with a clerestoried 
nave and lofty tower. The chancel roof is vaulted and beauti- 
fully groined in stone. At its N.E. angle is a turret, said to 
have been used for showing a beacon light to mariners at sea. 
On the east side is an arch and two aumbries ; on the north side 

261 



Norfolk 



the remains of an Easter sepulchre. The oak roof of the nave is 
very fine ; the rood screen remains in its place ; and the north 
and south tower buttresses bear the arms of the sees of Norwich 
and Thetford. There are some remains of a Carmelite mon- 
astery here. It was founded by John Stormer in 1290, and in 
the fourteenth century had for its friar John de Baconthorpe, a 
learned metaphysician who was made Provincial of the English 
Carmelites 

Blicklin^ (pp. 133-41). — A village 2 m. N.W. from Aylsham station. 
It is believed to have been the birthplace of Anne Boleyn. Blick- 
ling Hall, one of the finest mansions in England, and Blickling 
Church, are fully described in Itinerary X. 

Blofield. — A parish and head of a union i| m. from Brundall 
station. Its fifteenth century church has four statues as pinnacles 
to the tower, and contains some interesting monuments, one to a 
member of the Paston family. 

Blo' NORTON. — A village on the Ouse, 6 m. S.E. from Harling Road 
station. 

BODHAM. — A parish 3 m. E. from Holt station. 

BODNEY. — A parish 7 m, S. from Swaffham. It has an ancient church 
in the Early EngHsh style, with traces of Saxon workmanship. 
The Hall was occupied by a community of French nuns during the 
Revolution. 

BOOTON. — A village i m. S.E. from Reepham station. 

BouGHTON. — A village i m. N. from Stoke Ferry station. 

BOWTHORPE. — A parish on the Yare, 3I m. W. from Norwich. The 
church is in ruins. 

Bracon Ash. — A village 2 m. N.W, from Flordon station. The 
Hall, which occupies the site of an earlier building in which Queen 
Elizabeth is said to have stayed, stands in a very ancient park 
which pays the rector ^5 a year, the computed value of a buck or 
doe, in lieu of all tithes. The Berney family, who still hold the 
hall, are of Norman descent and settled in Norfolk before the 
Conquest, giving their name to a manor and parish in West 
Norfolk. 

Bradenham, East. — A village 3 J m. S. from Wendling station. 

Bradenham, West. — A village 3 m. S. from WendHng station. The 
church, an ancient flint building in the Early English and Per- 
pendicular styles, has, in the chancel, an inscribed stone to 
Thomas Cayley, a rector to whose ancestors the manor was 
granted by the Earl of Warrenne at the Conquest. There is also 
a memorial window to members of the Haggard family. Braden- 
ham Hall, built in 1772, occupies an elevated position, and was 
the birthplace of Mr H. Rider Haggard, the novelist. 

Bradfield. — A parish t| m. S. by E. from Gunton station. 
262 



Gazetteer 



Bramerton. — A picturesque parish on the Yare, 4^ m. S.E. from 
Norwich. The church, rebuilt in 1462, contains memorial windows 
to the Blake family. The Wood's End Inn is largely patronised 
by boating parties. The Hall, from about 1400 to about 1760 the 
seat of the Corys, has been partly rebuilt. The Grange is an old 
Elizabethan building with a fine oak staircase. 

Brampton.— A village on the Bure, 2J m. S.E. from Aylsham. The 
old Hall is now a farm-house. 

BRANCASTER.— A coastline village 5 m. W.N.W. from Burn- 
ham Market station. The church is a flint building in the Per- 
pendicular style, with a clerestoried nave and fine embattled tower. 
This place is the site of the Roman station of Branodomim, which 
was garrisoned by Dalmatian cavalry commanded by an officer 
called the " Count of the Saxon Shore." Scarcely a trace of this 
encampment, which was connected by a Roman road with a 
station at Caister near Yarmouth, is now to be seen. The links 
of the Royal West Norfolk Golf Club are on a common near the 
beach. 

Brandiston.— A village 2 m. S. from Cawston station. The Hall, 
an enlarged Jacobean mansion, erected in 1647, contains some 
good carving. 

BRANDON (pp. 54-56). — A small market town with a station 6 m- 
W. from Thetford. Part of this place is in Suffolk. Its church 
contains some Norman work. The manufacture of gun-flints is 
still carried on here, considerable quantities being made for ex- 
port to the Arab tribes of Africa. The neighbourhood is noted 
for its prolific production of flint implements, both prehistoric and 
spurious. An extended reference to Brandon, its curious industry, 
and prehistoric remains is made in Itinerary IV. 

Brandon Parva. — A parish on the Yare, 2J m. N. from Hardingham 
station. 

Breckles. — A village i^ m. S. from Stow Bedon station. Its church 
contains a Norman font, fine carved oak screen, Norman arch, 
an hour glass, a carved oak pulpit, and some good oak benches 
with carved poppy heads. Ursula, wife of Sir WiUiam Hewyt, 
was buried here in 1658 in an upright position. A black marble 
tablet marks her grave and bears the words ' ' Stat ut Vixit 
Erecta." The Hall, a sixteenth century mansion, is now a farm- 
house. 

Bressingham. — A straggling village on the Suffolk border, 3 m. 
N.W. from Diss station. . The church, rebuilt in 1527, has a 
clerestoried nave and lofty embattled tower, and contains good 
oak carving in its roof, pulpit, reading-desk, and pews. 

Brettenham. — A village on the Thet, 4 m. E. from Thetford. The 
church is a modern one ; the original structure was destroyed by 
fire in the seventeenth century. 



263 



Norfolk 

Bridgham.— A village in the vale of the Thet, 2 m. S.W. from 
Harling Road station. The church is a large building in the 
Early English style, with a Norman south porch. 

Briningham.— A village i ra. N. from Melton Constable station. 

Brinton.— A village 2 m. from Melton Constable station. The 
church contains Saxon and Norman work, but has been con- 
siderably restored and enlarged in later styles. 

Brisley.— A parish 3 m. W. from North Elmham station. The 
church contains some sixteenth century brasses and an ancient 
rood screen. 

Briston, — A large village i m. E. from Melton Constable station. 

Brockdish.— A village on the Waveney, 4 m. S.W. from Harleston. 
The church benches are ornamented with some handsome poppy 
heads, and there are also some remains of a painted rood screen. 
A house here called " The Grove," built in 1672, has a fine oak 
staircase. 

Brooke.— A village 6 m. S. by E. from Trowse station. The Lodge 
' is an Elizabethan mansion. 

Broome. — A village ij m. N.W. from Ellingham station. A fine 
carved oak reredos was presented to the church in 1891. 

Brumstead. — A parish i m. N. from Stalham station. 

BRUNDALL (p. 153). — A village on the Yare, with a station, 6\ m. 
E. from Norwich. This is a noted Broadland resort. It affords 
excellent fishing, boats being obtainable at Coldham Hall and 
the Yare Hotel, where is also accommodation for visitors. In 
the church is a curious font covered with lead, supposed to date 
from the twelfth century. In Bradeston Church, now included 
in Brundall parish, is Saxon workmanship, and a brass to 
Osbert, a son of John Berney of Reedham, who was wounded at 
the siege of Caister Castle in- 1469. 

Buckenham Ferry (p. 159). — A village on the Yare, 8 m. E. from 
Norwich. Its station is the nearest to Rockland Broad. The 
arms of the family of Gonsalve, lords of the manor until the end 
of the sixteenth century, may be seen in the carved wainscot of 
the old Hall, now a farmhouse. 

Buckenham, New. — A small town 5 m. S.E. from Attleborough. 
The church is a fine building in the late Perpendicular style, and 
has a clerestoried nave of five bays and embattled tower. Inn : 
George. 

Buckenham, Old. — A village 3 m". S. by E. from Attleborough. 
An ancient earthwork known as " Bunn's Bank" divides Old 
Buckenham from Attleborough. It can be traced for nearly 
three miles. Here are also a few traces of an Augustinian priory, 
founded by William D'Albini, a follower of the Conqueror, on 
the site of a castle which stood within similar earthworks to those 
264 



Gazetteer 



at Castle Acre and Castle Rising. Some remains of a dungeon 
are all that is left of this Norman stronghold, but the earthworks, 
overgrown with trees, are practically undisturbed. 

BucKENHAM ToFTS. — A small parish 6 m. N.E. from Brandon 
station. 

BuNWELL. — A scattered village 4 m. W. from Forncett station. 

Burgh. — A village on the Bure, 2 m. S.E. from Aylsham. The 
upper stage of its church's chancel has a range of fine lancets, 
arcaded on the inside ; the lower stage has continuous arcading. 
An Early English archway in the north wall opens into a chapel. 
This striking work dates from about the year 1200. 

'Burgh- Apton. — A scattered village 3I m. from Loddon and 5 m. 
S. by W. from Buckenham station. 

Burgh, Flegg. — A parish 2 m. S.W. from Martham station. It 
formerly consisted of two parishes (Burgh St Margaret and St 
Mary). Only a small portion of the tower of St Mary's Church 
remains. St Margaret's is a flint building in the Decorated and 
Perpendicular styles, with a Late Norman doorway. 

Burgh St Peter (p. 187). — A village on the Waveney, 2| m. from 
Carlton Colville station by ferry and marsh footpath. The 
church has a curious tower, consistmg of five storeys, each smaller 
than the one immediately below it. The interior of the church 
somewhat resembles a cloister, being about no feet long and 
little more than 14 feet wide. There is a riverside landing-stage 
here, where boating parties on the Waveney land to obtain a 
closer view of the church. 

BURLINGHAM, NoRTH. — A scattered village x\ m. N, from Lingwood 
station. The church, a flint building in the Gothic style, contains 
some remains of a good carved oak screen. 

BURLINGHAM St Peter. — A parish i| m. N.E. from Lingwood 
station. 

BURLINGHAM, SouTH. — A parish adjoining Lingwood station. The 
church, a small thatched building, contains a fifteenth century 
pulpit, on hour-glass stand, and a fifteenth century rood screen. 
There are also some interesting frescoes, one of the fourteenth cen- 
tury portraying the murder of Thomas a Becket. 

BuRNHAM Deepdale. — A small village near the coast, 2^ m. N.W. 
from Burnham Market station. The church, an ancient building 
in the Norman style, with a round tower, contains a Norman font 
adorned with carved figures representing the twelve months of the 
year. 

Burnham Market. — A small town, with a station, between Lynn 
and Wells. The church is a flint building in the Early English 
and Decorated styles, with a clerestoried nave and embattled tower. 
The tower battlements are ornamented with figures representing 



265 



Norfolk 



events of the New Testament narrative, from the "Salutation" 
to the "Crucifixion." Among the places of interest in the 
neighbourhood are Holkham Park, Creake Abbey, Norton 
Priory, and Burnham Thorpe, the birthplace of Lord Nelson. 
The chief hotel is the Hoste Arms. 

Burnham Norton. — A parish comprising a village called Norton 
Street, i^ m. N. by E, from Burnham Market. The church, 
which stands on a hill fronting the sea, is a fine flint building in 
the Perpendicular style, with a lofty round tower of ancient date. 
The pulpit is adorned with paintings of the four Doctors of the 
Church and portraits of John Goldale and his wife, who gave it. 
There is also an ancient screen. In this parish are scanty re- 
mains of a Carmelite friary, founded in 1241 by Sir Richard de 
Hemenhale. The gateway has been restored. 

Burnham Overy. — A small seaport including the village of Burn- 
ham Overy Staithe, i mile E. by N. from Burnham Market. The 
church is in the Norman style. Overy Staithe is a pleasant vil- 
lage with a harbour to accommodate small coasting craft. 
There is a wide sandy beach. 

Burnham Sutton and Ulph. — A small village adjoining Burnham 
Market. The church of St Albert is an ivy-clad ruin. 

Burnham Thorpe. — A village i m. E. by S. from Burnham Market 
station. The birthplace of Lord Nelson, whose father, the Rev. 
Edmund Nelson, M.A., was rector of the parish from 1755 to 
1802. The old rectory in which the hero of the Nile and Tra- 
falgar spent his childhood has been pulled down. Nelson always 
had a great affection for it and his native village, and when raised 
to the peerage assumed the title of Baron Nelson of the Nile and 
of Burnham Thorpe. The church contains an oak lectern, con- 
structed from a portion of H.M.S. Victory, presented by the 
Lords of the Admiralty. A Nelson Memorial Hall, which serves 
as a village reading and lecture hall, has been erected here, and 
contains an oil-painting copied from Abbot's picture in the Green- 
wich Gallery, and a curious tablet representing Nelson's death. 
Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince of Wales are patrons of a 
fund for the restoration of the church. The first meeting of the 
committee was held at Marlborough House in 1890, when it was 
decided that this restoration should be carried out as a memorial 
to Lord Nelson, Sir Arthur Blomfield, A.R.A., stating that the 
church was ' ' a good specimen of the churches of a county un- 
usually rich in mediaeval ecclesiastical architecture," and adding 
that if carefully repaired it might be made a noble memorial. 
The sum (;^70oo) necessary to complete the work has not yet 
been raised, although members of the Royal family and others 
have contributed liberally. 

Burston. — A village 3 m. N. by E. from Diss, with a station on the 
Norwich and Ipswich line. 
266 



Gazetteer 



Buxton. — A village on the Bare, with a station called Buxton Lam- 
mas on the East Norfolk line. 

Bylaugh. — A parish on the north bank of the Wensum, 3I m, S.E. 
from North Elmham station. The Hall is a fine mansion, de- 
signed by the late Sir Charles Barry for the late Sir John Lombe 
Bart., a representative of the families of Foliot and Hastings. 
Its interior is decorated by the work of German artists, and it 
stands in a park of about 1000 acres. 

CAISTER (pp. 78-80). — A coast village with a station 2 m. N. from 
Yarmouth. Formerly there were two churches here, but of one 
of these only a portion of the tower remains. Caister Castle, 
built by Sir John Fastolff in the middle of the fifteenth century, 
is one of the most interesting ruins in the county. A charge of 
twopence is made for admission to the grounds in which the 
castle stands. Visitors staying in Yarmouth can journey by train 
to Caister from the Beach station, or by wagonettes which run 
from near St Nicholas Church. The wagonettes stop at the 
village, from which the castle is distant about i^ miles. 

CAISTOR ST EDMUND (pp. 38-40).— A scattered village 3 m. S. 
from Norwich and 2 m. N. from Swainsthorpe station. This 
place, the Venta Icenorum of the Romans, is remarkable for its 
well-preserved Roman camp, of which some account will be 
found on p. 39. The church, within the ramparts of the camp, 
contains a fine Perpendicular font. 

Caldecote. — A parish 5 m. S. from Narborough station. 

Calthorpe. — A village 4 m. from Aylsham. 

CANTLEY. — A parish 10 m. E. from Norwich, with a ferry on the 
Yare and a station on the Norwich and Yarmouth line. This is 
a Broadland angling resort. Boats may be hired at the Red 
House Inn, near the station. 

Carbrooke. — A village 2 m. N.E. from Watton station. The 
church, a fine Perpendicular building, contains a good carved oak 
screen and some old armour. In the chancel are the tombs of 
Roger de Clare, the founder of the church, and his mother. 

Carleton Rode. — A scattered village 4 m. N.W. from Tivetshall 
station. The chiirch is a flint Perpendicular building, with a 
clerestoried nave and embattled tower. There is a piscina in 
each aisle, and a double piscina and eight consecration crosses in 
the chancel. 

Carleton St Peter.— A village 2 J m. S, from Buckenham station, 
near which is a ferry across the Yare. 

Carlton, East. — A scattered village 2 m. W. from Swainsthorpe 
• station. 

Carlton Forehoe. — A village 2 m. E. from Kimberley station. 

267 



Norfolk 



Castle Acre. — A village \\ m, N, from Swaffham. The river Nar 
flows through the parish and provides trout fishing. There are 
ruins here of a Norman castle and Cluniac priory. These are 
described on p. 128. 

Castle Rising. — A parish on a stream called the Babingley River, 2 
m. E. from North Wootton station. This place was once a con- 
siderable town. It is now chiefly visited for its ruined castle, 
built by William D'Albini in 1171 (pp. 109-10). The church, a 
fine example of late Norman work, probably dates from the early 
part of the twelfth century. The Bede House is referred to on 
p. III. 

Caston. — A village \\ m. N.E. from Stow Bedon station. The 
church, a fine building in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, 
contains a Jacobean pulpit, some benches adorned with poppy 
heads, the base of a rood screen, and a brass candelabrum from 
Waltham Abbey. A tomb casing in the north wall of the nave is 
possibly that of Sir John de Caston, the founder of the church. 
The church farmhouse was formerly a refectory for pilgrims to 
Walsingham. 

Catfield. — A village near the Ant, with a station, 14 m. N.E. from 
Norwich. The parish includes parts of Hickling and Barton 
Broads. A carved oak screen divides the church chancel and 
nave. 

Catton. — A picturesque Norwich suburb. The church contains 
some interesting monuments, including one in the Gothic style, 
exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. 

Cawston. — A large village, with a station, 4 m. S.W. from Ayls- 
ham. Its fine Perpendicular church is one which no one who 
visits the neighbourhood, and is interested in ecclesiastical 
architecture, should fail to see. Its nave has a splendid open 
roof with double hammer beams, the lower arches of which are 
carried on wooden shafts, rising between the clerestory windows. 
Its rood screen is an unusually fine one. There is a sacristy, used 
as a morning chapel, on the south side of the chancel. Near the 
Woodrow Inn a small stone pillar marks the spot where Sir 
Henry Hobart, Bart., and M.P., fell in a duel fought with Mr 
Oliver Le Neve on August 21st, 1698. Sir Henry Hobart, who 
lived at Blickling Hall, where his armorial bearings may still be 
seen over the door, was the father of the first Earl of Buckingham- 
shire. 

Chedgrave. — A village on the north bank of the Chet, adjoining 
Loddom, and 5 m. S.E. from Buckenham station. Its church, 
an ancient building in the Norman style, has good Norman door- 
ways, and its windows contain some stained glass brought by 
Lady Procter Beauchamp from Rouen Cathedral after the French 
Revolution. 

Choseley. — A small parish 3 m. N. by W. from Docking station. 
268 



Gazetteer 



Claxton. — A village 2 m. S. from Buckenhatn station. The church 
contains an interesting tomb, dated 1620, to the Gawdy family. 
Near Claxton manor-house, now a farmhouse, are the ruins of a 
castellated mansion. 

Clenchwarton. — A village with a station, 2 m. W. from Lynn by 
ferry. Salt marshes extend from here to the Wash, and much ot 
the land is reclaimed fen. 

CLEY. — A small coast town 12 m. W. from Cromer and 4 m. 
N.N.W. from Holt station. Its very interesting church is 
described on p. 92. The chief hotels are the "George" and 
" Temperance." 

Clippesby.— A parish 3 m. S.W. from Martham station. Its little 
church is Norman and Early English, and has two Norman 
doorways. In it are brasses dated 1508 and 1594. 

CocKLEY Cley. — A parish 4 m. S.W. from Swaffham, Its church 
is Early English. An ancient chapel of St Mary is now a cottage. 

COCKTHORPE.— A village 5 m. E.S.E. from Wells. Its church, 
chiefly Early English, contains monuments to Sir John Calthorpe, 
who died in 1615, and his wife. This village was the birthplace 
of Sir Cloudesley Shovel. There are to be seen here some re- 
mains of a large mansion formerly the seat of the Calthorpe 
family. 

Colby. — A village 3I m. N.E. from Aylsham, 

CoLKiRK. — A village 2 m. S. from Fakenham. 

CoLNEY. — A parish near the Yare, 3 m. W. from Norwich. 

COLTISH ALL.— A large village on the Bure, 7 m. N. from Nor- 
wich, with a station on the Wroxham and Aylsham line. The 
church is in the Early English style. Its west doorway and 
tower battlements are adorned with some curious figures. This 
place is a Broadland angling resort. Boats may be hired at the 
Anchor Inn, and there is accommodation for visitors at the 
King's Head, White Horse, New Inn, and elsewhere in the 
village. 

COLTON. — A village on the Yare, 4 m. N.E. from Kimberley station. 
Its small Early English church contains a good screen, the seats 
have some carved poppy heads, and there is a holy water stoup 
inside the south door. 

CoLVESTON. — A parish 6 m. N. from Brandon station. The church 
has almost disappeared. 

CONGHAM. — A village i i^i. E. by N. from Grimstone Road station. 
The birthplace of Sir Henry Spelman, the famous Elizabethan 
antiquary. 

CoRPUSTY. — A village with a station, 6 m. N.W. from Aylsham. 
CoSTESSEY (called " Cossey "). — A village on the Wensum, i m. S.W. 

269 



Norfolk 



from Drayton station. The church is a large building chiefly in 
the Gothic style, but with a Norman south doorway. It con- 
tains a Gothic screen, a Jacobean pulpit, and monuments of the 
Waldegrave and Jerningham families. The Costessey estate 
was granted by Queen Mary to Sir Henry Jerningham, her Vice- 
Chamberlain and Master of the Horse. The Old Hall and New 
Hall (the seat of Lord Stafford) are described on pp. 121-2. The 
latter contains a portrait of Queen Mary by Holbein, another of 
Richard HI., and a drawing by Vandyck of the Earl of Arundel 
and his family. One of the rooms is fitted up with carved wood- 
work of the fifteenth century from the abbey of St Amand, at 
Rouen. 

COSTON. — A parish on the Yare, i m. N.E. from Hardingham 
station. The church is an ancient building. 

Cranwich. — A parish on the Wissey, 6 m. N. from Brandon station. 
The church is an ancient building with a round tower. 

Cr AN WORTH. — A village 4 m. W. from Hardingham station. Its 
thirteenth-century church contains some interesting memorials 
to the Gurdon family, including one to Brampton Gurdon, M. P. 
for Sudbury, who commanded the Suffolk Horse at the battle of 
Naseby ; also some carved oak choir stalls and an old oak 
screen. The village " stocks" are still standing on the church 
green. 

Creake, North. — A village 3 m. S.E. from Burnham Market 
station. The church, a fine building in the Decorated and Per- 
pendicular styles, contains an Easter sepulchre and a good 
brass with effigy of Sir William Calthorpe. At the north end 
of the parish are the ruins of an abbey founded about 1226 by 
Sir Robert de Nereford for Augustinian canons. 

Creake, South. — A village 4 m. S. from Burnham Market station. 
The church contains an oak rood screen, and has some good 
windows with old stained glass ; also a massive cedar-lined oak 
chest with five locks. About half a mile from the church is a 
remarkable fortification, supposed to be Saxon. The road which 
leads to it is called " Bloodgate," and there is a tradition that it 
was the scene of a battle between the Saxons and Danes. 

Cressingham, Great. — A village on the Wissey, a,\ m. S.W. from 
Holme Hale station. The church is a fine Gothic building with 
a carved oak roof. The font has an oaken canopy, and there are 
some old brasses. The manor-house, a fifteenth-century mansion, 
now a farmhouse, is very interesting. 

Cressingham, Little. — A village 3 J m, W. from Watton station. 
The church, partly in ruins, has some carved poppy heads in the 
chancel, and contains a monument to the first and only Earl of 
Clermont. 

Crimplesham. — A village 2^ m. E. from Downham station. 
270 



Gazetteer 



Cringleford. — A village on the Yare, 3 m. S.W. from Norwich 
(Victoria) station. 

Cromer (pp. 85-89). — This well-known town, the most delightful 
seaside resort on the Norfolk coast, is about twenty-two miles 
N. from Norwich, and 130 from London. It stands on cliffs 
which rise to a considerable height, and is sheltered by well- 
wooded hills. Of late years its popularity has so increased that 
its inhabitants have had difficulty in accommodating the great 
numbers of visitors ; but the erection of new hotels, streets, and 
boarding houses has made ample provision for all comers. The 
undermining influence of the waves formerly did much damage 
to Cromer ; indeed Old Cromer or Shipden has entirely disap- 
peared into the sea ; but the erection of a stone-walled esplanade 
has served to protect the existing town, and it is only east and 
west of the town that the cliffs are now subject to occasional land- 
slips, such as have necessitated the reconstruction of the light- 
house. There is excellent bathing, and the beach is one of the 
finest on the coast. '"The best of the sea's lutes," said Mr 
Theodore Watts to George Borrow, "is made by the sands of 
Cromer." The cliffs all along this part of the coast are of great 
interest to geologists, for the Norwich Crag is to be seen at 
Weybourne, and for miles the remarkable pre-glacial Forest 
Bed is visible. Lyell says it consists of ' ' stumps of numerous 
trees, standing erect, with their roots attached to them, 
and penetrating in all directions into the loam or ancient 
vegetable soil on which they grew. They mark the site of a 
forest which existed there for a long time, since besides the 
erect trunks of trees, some of them two and three feet in 
diameter, there is a vast accumulation of vegetable matter 
in the immediately overlying clays." Above it, in the cliffs, 
are sands and clays with lignite. Traces of many kinds of 
plants and seeds are found in the forest bed, among them 
firs, yews, oaks, and alders, and white and yellow water 
lilies ; also insects and fresh water shells. Far more inter- 
esting, however, are the mammalian remains, which include 
those of "three distinct elephants, a rhinoceros and hippopo- 
tamus, a large extinct beaver, and several large estuarian and 
marine mammalia, such as the walrus, the narwhal, and the 
whale." 

Cromer Chuich is a fine Perpendicular building of flint and 
freestone, with a clerestoried nave of five bays, and an embattled 
tower 159 feet high. Originally it was greatly ornamented with 
sculptured work, and its Galilee porch is adorned with some 
good figures of saints and angels. Some part of the old rood 
turret remains. There is fine tracery in the windows, and the 
inlaid work along the plinth, and the panelling and niches in the 
buttresses are particularly interesting. The font is a copy of a 
very fine one in Yaxham Church. The chancel, for a long time 
in ruins, was restored in 1887-9 ^.t a cost of nearly ^^7000, under 
the direction of Sir Arthur W. Blomfield. ; 

271 



Norfolk 



The Royal Cromer Golf Club's links are on the Lighthouse 
Hills about half a mile eastward of the town. Here a challenge 
cup presented by the Prince of Wales, who is patron of the club, 
is annually competed for. The present lighthouse, which replaces 
one that, after standing a long time dismantled, fell over the cliff 
in 1867, is only 52 feet high, but is about 252 feet above the level 
of the sea. 

The district for miles around the town provides delightful 
rambles for field botanists, and is remarkable for its fine old 
mansions, grand churches, prehistoric remains, and other objects 
and places of antiquarian interest, most of which are dealt with 
in the chapter ' ' By the Wild North Sea." There are two railway 
stations, one a G. E. R. terminus at which passengers from London 
arrive by way of Norwich ; the other, known as the Beach Station, 
is that of the Midland and Great Northern Companies. 

The chief places of interest around Cromer are : — 

Beeston Priory (p. 89), distant about 3 miles. 

Gunton Park, nearest station Gunton. 

Aylmerton " Shrieking Pits" (p. 89), distant about 3 miles. 

Overstrand (p. 86), distant about 2 miles. 

Sidestrand, distant about 3 miles. 

Mundesley, nearest station Mundesley. 

Trimingham, distant 5 miles. 

Blickling Hall (pp. 133-40), distant 2 miles from Aylsham 
station. 

Felbrigg, distant about 3 miles. 

Hey don Hall, nearest station Bluestone. 

Gresham House ruins (p. 89), distant about 5 miles. 

Wroxham Broad (p. 170), nearest station Wroxham. 

Sheringham, distant a few minutes' railway journey from the 
Beach station. During the summer months omnibuses run each 
week day between Cromer (G. E. R. ) station and East and West 
Runton and Sheringham in connection at Cromer with the 
principal express trains from and to London. 

The principal hotels are the Albion, Church Street ; Bath, 
Esplanade ; Grand, West Cliff ; Hotel de Paris, Jetty Street ; 
Imperial, Norwich Road ; King's Head, High Street ; Marl- 
borough (private). Prince of Wales Road ; Metropole, Tucker's 
Street ; Royal Links, East Cliff ; Red Lion, Brooks Street ; Ship, 
Church Square, Sufifield Park ; Tucker's, Tucker's Street ; 
Tucker's Esplanade, Esplanade ; Wellington, Gordon Street ; 
West Cliff (private) ; and White Horse, West Street. 

Boarding-Houses : Beach House, East Cliff; Belmont, Prince 
of Wales Road; Cannon House, West Cliff; Cliftonville, Cliff; 
Granville, Church Street ; Lindhurst, Alfred Road ; Sandringham, 
Church Square; Surrey House, East Cliff; Victoria, East Cliff; 
and Westward Ho !, Prince of Wales Road. 

Crostwick. — A village 3J m. S.W. from Salhouse station. Its 
church contains an old fresco of St Christopher, and remains of 
the rood loft staircase. 

272 



Gazetteer 



Crostwight. — A parish 2 m. N. from Honing station. Its church 
contains a carved oak screen, a fine Norman font, and a brass 
dated 1447. 

Crownthorpe.— A village i m. E. from Kimberley station. The 
church pulpit has some good carved oak panels. 

Croxton. — A village 2 m, N. from Thetford. 

Denton. — A scattered village i^ m. N.E. from Homersfield station. 
The church has a stone groined roof and contains some brasses. 

Denver. — A village, with a station, on the Ouse, i m. S. from 
Downham Market. In the church is a black marble slab to the 
memory of Dr Robert Brady, a native of this parish, who was 
physician to Charles II. and James II., and for forty years 
master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. 

Deopham, — A parish 3 m. S. from Kimberley station. The church 
is a Decorated building with a fine Perpendicular tower. 

DEREHAM, EAST (pp. 123-6).— A market town 16 m. W. by N. 
from Norwich. This town was the birthplace of George Henry 
Borrow, the author of " Lavengro," "The Romany Rye," " The 
Bible in Spain," and other works whose popularity seems to 
increase year by year. Borrow was very fond of his native town, 
and refers to it with pride in the pages of his partly autobiographical 
" Lavengro." The church of St Nicholas, an ancient building in 
mixed styles, is famous for containing the tomb of the poet 
Cowper, who died in Dereham in 1800. It is also remarkable for 
its fine Perpendicular font, dating from 1468, and contains an 
ancient muniment chest taken from the ruins of Buckenham 
Castle ; also two small fifteenth century brasses. The detached 
bell-tower was formerly used as a prison for French prisoners-of- 
war. 

The house in which Cowper and his old friend Mrs Unwin died 
stood in the market-place, where its site is marked by a Con- 
gregational Chapel, called the "Cowper Memorial Church." A 
monument in front of the chapel bears the following inscription, 
written by Dean Stanley : — 

WILLIAM COWPER 
spent the last years of his life 
under the care of faithful friends, 
he lies buried in the parish church 
having given up his soul to god 
April "z^th, 1800. 
" I was a stricken deer that left the herd 
Long since. With many an arrow deep infix'd 
My panting side was charged when I withdrew 
To seek a tranquil death in distant shades. 
There was I found by One who had himself 
Been hurt by the archers. In his side he bore, 
And in his hands and feet, the cruel scars." 

s 273 



Norfolk 



Formerly there was a large church and nunnery here, founded in 
the seventh century by Withburga, daughter of Anna, King of 
the East Angles. When Withburga died her body was buried 
in the churchyard, but afterwards removed into the church, 
where it remained until the reign of King Edgar, when it was 
conveyed to the monastery at Ely. When it was taken up from 
the churchyard, a spring of pure water is said to have bubbled up 
from the ground. This spring may still be seen in the church- 
yard, surrounded by railings and sheltered by an arch which 
bears an inscription (p. 125). In earlier times it is supposed to 
have been used for baptismal purposes. The chief hotels are 
the King's Arms and King's Head. 

Dereham, West. — A village, with a station called "Abbey," 4 m. 
S. E. from Downham Market. The church has a massive round 
tower and contains some ancient stained glass believed to have 
been removed from a Premonstratensian abbey founded here in 
1188 by Hubert Walter, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Here are monuments to the Dereham family, one of elaborate 
workmanship in coloured marbles, erected at the beginning of 
the eighteenth century ; also a life-size marble statue of Colonel 
Soame, who died in 1706. Francis Dereham, the lover of 
Katherine Howard, and who was executed in 1542, was a 
member of an old family which took its name from this place. 
In the middle of the sixteenth century, the Abbey Farm was 
held by Thomas Tusser, author of the " Five Hundred Points 
of Good Husbandry." 

Dersingham (p. 108). — A village, with a station, adjoining Sand- 
ringham. The church is a large and ancient building in the 
Perpendicular style, with an embattled western tower which has 
four carved angels for pinnacles. The chancel, which has 
windows of the Decorated period, is divided from the nave by a 
carved oak screen. In the south aisles is an altar-tomb with 
a brass dated 1607; and there is a curious "leper window" on 
the south side of the chancel, and an old font with a carved oak 
cover. H. R. H. the Prince of Wales is one of the landowners of 
this parish. 

DiCKLEBURGH with LoNGMERE. — A large village 2 m. E. from 
Burston station. In the church is an elaborate tablet to Dame 
Frances Playters, who died in 1658 ; also the remains of a fine 
screen. 

DlDLiNGTON. — A parish 5 m. E. from Stoke Ferry station. The 
Hall, the seat of the Amherst family, stands in a park of about 
1500 acres, and contains several good pictures and a valuable 
library including many rare books and manuscripts. In the park 
is a lake of about 50 acres. 

DiLHAM. — A large village on the Ant, 2| m. E. from Worstead 
station. 

Diss. — A market town, with a station, 19 m. S.W. from Norwich. 
274 



Gazetteer 



The church, a large building in the Perpendicular style, has a 
modern reredos of Caen stone, inlaid with coloured marbles and 
adorned with bosses of spar and gold, and the emblems of the 
Evangelists. South of the town is Diss Mere, a pond of about 
5 acres connected with the Waveney. Westbrook Green, Walcot 
Green, and Diss Heywood are adjoining hamlets. The principal 
hotels are the Crown and King's Head. 

DiTCHiNGHAM. — A scattered village, with a station, adjoining Bungay 
(Suffolk). Ditchingham House, pleasantly situated on a wooded 
bank sloping down to the Waveney, is the residence of Mr H. 
Rider Haggard, the novelist. 

Docking. — A parish and union town, with a station, 6 m. S.W. 
from Burnham Market. The principal hotels are the Hare and 
Plough. Summerfield is a parish connected with Docking. 

DOWNHAM or DowNHAM MARKET. — A market town, with a station, 
II m. S. from Lynn, and on the east side of the Ouse. Its 
church, originally Norman, was re-built in the Early English 
style, and has recently been restored. The principal hotels are 
the Crown and Castle. 

Drayton. — A village, with a station, in the vale of the Wensum, 4I 
m. N.W. from Norwich. A field here is called Blood's Dale 
from a tradition that it was the scene of an Anglo-Saxon battle. 
An ancient wayside cross in the village bears a French inscription 
asking travellers to pray for the souls of William de Bellemont 
and Joan his wife. Drayton Lodge is a portion of an ancient 
castellated building formerly held by Sir John Fastolff of Caister 
Castle, and by the Pastons (p. 84). An attack was made upon 
it in 1465 by the Duke of Suffolk, who gained possession and 
held it for some time. 

Dunham, Great. — An old village i m, N.E. from Dunham station. 
Some portions of the church are said to be of Saxon date, and 
some bricks, apparently Roman, were used in its construction. 
A Roman altar and some remains of a vanished church were dis- 
covered in the rectory garden. 

Dunham, Little. — A village, with a station, 4 m, N.E. from 
Swaffham. 

DuNSTON. — A parish on the Tas, \\ m. N.E. from Swainsthorpe 
station. The church contains a brass with effigies, dated 1649. 

DUNTON-CUM-DOUGHTON. — A small village on the Wensum, 3 m. W. 
from Fakenham. 

Earlham. — A parish forming part of Norwich. 

Earsham. — A scattered village on the Waveney, with a station, i m. 
W. from Bungay (Suffolk). The church, which contains a good 
Perpendicular font, stands on an ancient encampment. 

Easton. — A village 4 m. S.W. from Drayton station. 

Eaton. — A parish forming part of Norwich. 

275 



Norfolk 



ECCLES. — A parish on the Thet, \ m. S. from Eccles Road station. 

Eccles-by-the-Sea. — A decayed coast parish 3m. N.E. from Stal- 
ham station. The church was destroyed by the sea at the begin- 
ning of the seventeenth century. Some remains of its tower are 
still to be seen on the beach, 

Edgefield. — A parish 3 m. N.E. from Melton Constable station. 

Edingthorpe. — A coast parish 3J N.E. from North Walsham 
station. The church contains a good Decorated screen. 

Egmere. — A small parish 3 m. W. from Walsingham station. The 
church, now an ivy-clad ruin, was used as a barn by Sir Nicholas 
Bacon of Stiff key, Lord Privy Seal to Queen Elizabeth. 

Ellingham. — A village, with a station, on the Waveney, 2J m. 
N.E. from Bungay (Suffolk), The church, which dates from 
the twelfth century, contains a painting representing " The angel 
liberating Peter," and on the north wall of the nave a figure of 
the head of a bishop. 

Ellingham, Great. — A village 3 m. N.W. from Attleborough 
station. 

Ellingham, Little. — A village 5 m. N.W. from Attleborough 
station. 

Elmham (or North Elmham). — A village, with a station, 5 m. N, 
from East Dereham, This is a very ancient place, and was the 
see of a bishopric from 673 to 870, when East Anglia was sub- 
jected to a great Danish invasion. It was occupied again from 
956 to about 1075, when Herfast, the first Norman bishop, who 
came over with the Conqueror, removed it to Thetford. The 
mound on which the bishop's palace stood, and the fosse which 
surrounded it, are still to be seen, together with a few fragments 
of old walls. The church is a fine Perpendicular building, with 
side chapels which are separated from the chancel by carved oak 
screens, Elmham Hall was built in 1727. Its park contains a 
herd of fallow deer. 

Elsing, — A stragghng village on the south side of the Wensum, 
5 J m. E.N.E. from Dereham. The church was built by Sir 
Hugh Hastings, who died in 1347, and whose brass, somewhat 
mutilated, is still preserved. The font is a very good one, and 
its canopy, which must originally have been a very fine one^ is 
said to be the oldest in England. Elsing Hall, now a farmhouse, 
is an old moated mansion of the sixteenth century. Its entrance 
hall, porch, and chapel, are the most ancient portions. 

Emneth.^ — A straggling village i m. S, from Emneth Road station. 
Its°,church, one of the finest in Marshland, contains a good carved 
oak rood screen, some interesting monuments, and an altar tomb 
with two recumbent figures. 

Erpingham. — A village 2 J m. N. from Aylsham Town station. 
The church, a fine Early English building, contains the brass of 
276 



Gazetteer 



John of Erpingham, and is supposed to have been partly built by 
Sir Thomas Erpingham, who fought at Agincourt, and is buried 
in Norwich Cathedral (pp. 22-23). 

Fakenham. — A small market town, with two stations, 34 m. N.W. 
from Norwich. The church is a flint building, chiefly in the 
Decorated style, with a tower dating from the time of Henry 
VI. It contains the brass of Henry Keys, who was rector in 
the early part of the fifteenth century ; also a richly carved 
screen. Formerly a light was kept burning in the church in 
honour of Henry VI. The chief inns are the Crown and Lion. 
Raynham Hall {see East Raynham), is about 4 m. from Faken- 
ham, and i^ m. S. from Raynham Park station. 

Felbrigg. — A parish 3 m. S.W. from Cromer. The church, in the 
park of Felbrigg Hall, contains a fine bust by Nollekens of the 
Rt. Hon. William Windham, the distinguished statesman who 
lived at the Hall ; also some exceptionally fine brasses of the 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The finest is that of Sir 
Simon Felbrigg, who died in 1443, and who was standard- 
bearer to Richard II. The Hall, an Early Tudor mansion, 
contains some good pictures, including a Rembrandt and 
some sea-fights by Vandervelde, 

Felmingham. — A parish, with a station, 2^ m. from North 
Walsham, 

Felthorpe. — A scattered village 5 m. S.E. from Cawston station. 

Feltwell. — A large village 3 m. N. from Lakenheath station. 
There are two churches here, St Mary's, which contains some 
sixteenth-century brasses and a carved oak screen ; and St 
Nicholas', used only as a mortuary chapel, 

Fersfield. — A village 5 m. N.W. from Diss. The birthplace, in 
1705, of Francis Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, who was 
rector here, and is buried in the church. The rectory in which 
he lived is still standing ; also the house in which he was 
born. 

Field Dalling. — A scattered village 4 m. N.N.E. from Thursford 
station. 

FiLBY. — A parish 2 m. S.W. from Ormesby station. The church 
contains a fine oak screen, part of which, however, is modern. 
Part of Filby Broad is in this parish. 

FiNCHAM. — A village 5 m. N.E. from Downham Market. The 
church, a large Perpendicular building, contains a Norman 
font ornamented with interesting sculptures. Fincham Hall, 
the ancient seat of the Finchams, was built in the reign of 
Edward IV., but has been modernised. 

FiSHLEY. — A parish on the Bure, x\ ra. from Acle station. The 
church tower is probably partly Saxon. 

Flitcham-with-Appleton. — A village i m. N. from HiUington 

277 



Norfolk 

station. There are some remains here of an Augustinian 

priory founded by Sir Robert Aguillon in the reign of Henry 

III. The hundred court was formerly held on a barrow 
called " Fhtcham Bury." 

Flordon. — A scattered village, with a station, yj m, S. by W. from 
Norwich. 

FORDHAM. — A small village on the Wissey, with a station, 3 m. S. 

from Downham. 
FoRNCETT St Mary. — A village on the Tas, near Forncett station. 

FoRNCETT St Peter. — A large village, with a station, 7 m. S.E. 
from Wymondham. The church contains a fifteenth century 
alabaster tomb, supposed to be that of the founder ; also some 
interesting brasses, and good fifteenth century poppy heads. 

FoULDEN, — A scattered village on the Wissey, 5I m. E. from Stoke 
Ferry station. 

FOULSHAM. — A parish, with two stations, 12 m. W. from Aylsham. 
The church, chiefly Perpendicular, contains a monument to 
Sir Thomas Hunt, who died in 1616 ; also a brass dated 1424. 
The old Hall, once occupied by Major-General Skippon, a 
Parliamentary commander during the Commonwealth, is now a 
farmhouse. 

FOXLEY, — A village 2 m. W. from Foulsham station. 

Framingham Earl. — A village 5 m. S.E. from Norwich. The 
church, an ancient building in the Norman and Early English 
styles, contains a fine Norman chancel arch. 

Framingham Pigot. — A village 4 m. S.E. from Norwich. 

Fransham, Great. —A village, with a station, 6\ m. W. from East 
Dereham. In the church are two old brasses, one a fine one, 
dated 1414, to Geoffry Fransham. 

Fransham, Little, — A parish i^ m. S.E. from Fransham station. 
The church has an ancient and curious font. 

Freethorpe. — A village 2 m. from Reedham station. In the 
church is a fine marble tablet and bust to Edward Walpole. 

Frenze. -A parish x\ m. N.E. from Diss station. In the church 
are several brasses to the Blennerhassets, the earliest dated 1475. 

Frettenham. — A village 3 m. W. from Coltishall station, 

Fring. — A village 2| m. S.W, from Docking station. In the church 
are some curious but dilapidated mural paintings. 

Fritton. — A village 4I m. E. from Forncett station. The church 
contains a fine screen, some good frescoes, and a Norman door- 
way. This place must not be confused with Fritton in Broadland, 
which is in Suffolk, 

Fulmodeston and Croxton, — United parishes and villages 2 m. • 
S. E. from Thursford station. 
278 



Gazetteer 



FuNDENHALL. — A scattered village i m. S. from Ashwellthorpe 
station. The church, an ancient flint building with a massive 
central tower, has a Norman doorway. 

Garboldisham. — A village 5 m. S. from Harling Road station. 
The church of St John the Baptist is a fine Perpendicular build- 
ing, with some Latin inscriptions over the south porch. Of 
another church (All Saints) only the tower remains, 

Garvestone. — A village near Thuxton station, 5 m. S, from 
Dereham. 

Gasthorpe. — A village 5 m. S. from Harling Road station. The 
church is in ruins. 

Gateley. — A parish 2 m. S. from Ryburgh station. The Hall, 
built in 1726, has its interior elaborately ornamented with 
plasterwork. 

Gayton. — A large village 2| m. N,E. from East Winch station. 
The church tower has four statues of the Evangelists in place of 
pinnacles. 

Gayton Thorpe. — A village 2| m. N.E. from East Winch station, 

Gaywood. — A village partly within the borough of Lynn. The 
church, a cruciform building in the Early English style, has a 
good Norman doorway, and contains two old Dutch paintings, 
one of Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury Fort, the other of Gunpowder 
Plot. The Hospital of St Mary Magdalene was first founded 
here in 1174 by Peter the Chaplain. It was re-founded in the 
reign of James L, burnt down at the siege of Lynn, and rebuilt 
in 1649. An old gabled house in the village street has some 
ancient ornamental ironwork in front, 

Geldeston, — A village on the Waveney, with a station, 2| m, 
N.W. from Beccles. 

GiLLiNGHAM. — A village i m. N.E. from Beccles. The church of 
St Mary is curiously constructed, and contains some Early Nor- 
man work and a Perpendicular screen. All Saints' Church is in 
ruins. The Hall was built in the reign of James L 

GiMiNGHAM. — A village 3 m. N.E. from Gunton station, 

GissiNG. — A village 2 m. N, from Burston station. Its church, 
chiefly in the Decorated style, has a fine Norman doorway, a 
carved oak roof, and contains some curious monuments to the 
Kemp family, one dated 1612. 

Glandford. — A village 3I m. N.W. from Holt station. The 
church is partly in ruins. 

GOODERSTONE, — A village 4 m, N,E. from Stoke Ferry station. 
The church, a large building in the Early English style, contains 
some ancient stained glass and a carved and painted rood screen. 

Gresham (p. 89), — A parish 5 m. S.W. from Cromer. This place 
is believed to have given its name to the family of Sir Thomas 

279 



Norfolk 



Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange and Gresham Col- 
lege. The church, an ancient building with a good south porch, 
contains a curiously sculptured font. A son of the poet Chaucer 
formerly held the manor. There are some remains here of the 
large castellated house which Sir Edmund Bacon held in 1318, 
and which Margaret Paston and her household defended against 
the attacks of Lord Molynes and a thousand men-at-arms. The 
remains, however, are scanty. ' ' At the further end (of a meadow) 
the trees form a circle, and coming closer one finds that the little 
mount on which they grow is surrounded by water dark with 
reeds, and that the moss and ivy are thick upon the tree trunks. 
As yet, though, there is no castle in sight, and it is not until one 
pushes a way through the tangled ferns and reeds, and the masses 
of ivy and meadow-sweet, that the first indications of what must 
once have been a fine stronghold are discovered. The trees shut 
it in completely, the mosses and hart's-tongues and grasses, the 
spiky loosestrife and the ivy cover the fragments that remain of 
the four huge towers originally standing in the great square of 
the castle." — Sunrise-land. 

Gressenhall. — A village 3 m. N,W. from Dereham, The church, 
a large cruciform flint building, contains a painted screen. 

GrimSTONE, — A large parish if m. E. from Grimstone Road station. 
The church is chiefly Early English. An anvil marks the grave 
of a blacksmith buried in the churchyard. The rectory occupies 
the site of a moated manor house. In the reign of Edward II. 
the manor was held by Benedict de Breecles, who possessed a 
right called " lovebene," to the effect that ',' all residents in Grim- 
ston, having horses with a cart, shall work for the lord redeem- 
ing the common of Grimston, one day's journey of barley seed 
time ; and all keeping cows on the common shall do a day's work 
in harvest time, and at three o'clock they shall have flesh to eat 
and ale to drink, and three loaves in the evening." 

Griston. — A village 2 m. S.E. from Watton station. The church 
bears an inscription to the effect that "An. Do. 1568 was thys 
steple tope newe set up to the greate coste of landed men." The 
pulpit has a fine canopy. 

GuESTWiCK. — A scattered village, with a station, 4 m. N.W, from 
Reepham. The church is Early English and stands on the site 
of an earlier one of which the tower and two Norman arches 
remain. It contains some old brasses. 

GuiST. — A parish 2 m. N, from Foulsham station. 

GUNTHORPE. — A village i| m. from Thursford station. The church, 
a fine building in the Early English style, contains a memorial 
window to Henry Astley Sparke, killed in the Balaclava Charge. 

GUNTON. — A parish 2| m. from Gunton station and 4J m. S. from 
Cromer. Gunton Hall, the seat of Lord Sufiield, stands in a 
park of 1000 acres. The road, at the N.E. corner of the park, 
280 



Gazetteer 



passes under the arch of a tower 120 feet high, commanding a 
wide view. Park and gardens are thrown open to the public on 
certain days of the week. 

Hackford. — A village i m. S. from Kimberley station. The church 
contains remains of a rood loft and some traces of mural 
paintings. 

Haddiscoe. — A village, with a station \\ m. from the houses, 5J m. 
N. from Beccles (Suffolk). The church has one of the finest 
round towers in the county and contains other Norman portions, 
a fine font, and the remains of some frescoes. The long " dam " 
across the marshes from the station to the village was constructed 
by Dame Margaret Hobart in the reign of Henry VII. 

Hales. — A village 4 m. S.W. from Reedham station. The church 

contains Norman work. 
Halvergate. — A village 3 m. N. from Reedham station. The 

church tower has figures of the four Evangelists in place of 

pinnacles. 
Hanworth, — A village 3^ m. W. from Gunton station. 

Happisburgh (Haseboro'), — A coast village 5 m. N. from Stalham 
station. The church, which stands in a high position, has a 
lofty embattled tower, and contains a fine font and carved oak 
screen. There is a lighthouse here, 100 feet high, for the 
guidance of mariners in the neighbourhood of the dreaded 
Happisburgh or Haseboro' Sands. The cliffs here give way 
to sandhills which extend to Yarmouth. There is accommoda- 
tion for visitors at the Hill House, the Swan, and elsewhere in 
the village. 

Hapton. — A village i| m. W. from Flordon Station. 

Hard INGHAM. — A scattered parish, with a station, 5^ m. W. from 
Wymondham. The Hall, erected toward the end of the seven- 
teenth century, has been much altered. 

Hardley (p. 159). — A parish 2 m. S.E. from Cantley station. In 
this parish the river Chet enters the Yare. 

Hardw^ick. — A village 4J m. N.W. from Harleston station. The 
church contains two fine altar tombs, one to Sir Peter Gleane, 
who armed two companies of foot on behalf of Charles I. during 
the Civil War. 

Hargham. — A parish i m. N. from Eccles Road station. 

Harleston. — A market town on the Waveney, 19 m. S. from 
Norwich. It contains the parish of Redenhall, where there is a 
fine Perpendicular church, re-built by Thomas Plantagenet, eldest 
son of Edward I. In the church are some stained glass armorial 
bearings from the old chapel of Gawdy Hall ; also some good 
monuments. Gawdy Hall, an Elizabethan moated mansion, is 
within easy walking distance of the town. The principal hotels 
are the Swan and the Magpie. 

281 



Norfolk 



Harling, East. — A small market "town," with a station called 
"Harling Road," 9 m, N.E, from Thetford. The church, a 
Perpendicular building with two chancel chapels, contains, in 
the Harling Chapel, an altar-tomb with efifigies to Sir Robert 
Harling, who was slain in the defence of Paris in 1435 ; also 
a very fine altar-tomb, with recumbent effigies, to Sir Thomas 
Lovell, who died in 1600 ; and the tomb of Sir William Chamber- 
lain, K. G. , who built the church, and died in 1462. There are 
some remains of carved screens, and in the vestry is a very old 
wooden chest. The principal inn is the Swan. 

Harling, West.— A parish 2| m. S. from Harling Road station. 
The church contains some fifteenth century brasses, and a tomb, 
with effigy, to William Berdwell, whose old hall was pulled 
down at the beginning of the eighteenth century. 

Harpley. — A village \ m, from Massingham station. The church 
has a curiously carved oak door and a rood screen. 

Hassingham. — ^A parish i m. E. from Buckenham station. 

Hautbois, Great.— a village on the Bure, adjoining Coltishall, 
where there is a station. The old church is in ruins. 

Hautbois, Little.— See Lammas. 

Haverland.— A village 2 J m. N. by E. from Attlebridge station. 
All the church windows are of stained glass. 

Haynford. — A scattered village 5^ m. W. from Wroxham station. 

Heacham. — A coast village, with a station, 3 ra, from Hunstanton. 
This is a very delightful village with a firm sandy beach. The 
church, a fine building with a good decorated east window, 
contains some monuments to the Rolfe family, of which the 
Indian princess Pocahontas became a member through marrying 
John Rolfe, a companion of Sir Walter Raleigh. This John 
Rolfe, who went out to Virginia three hundred years ago, 
arrived there a year or two before Pocahontas, the daughter of 
Powhatan, a powerful Indian chief, was brought by force to 
Jamestown. After his marriage to her he returned to England, 
where his wife was presented to James 1. and his Queen. He 
intended to revisit Virginia, but before the vessel in which he 
and his wife were to sail had left the Thames, Pocahontas, whose 
health had been undermined by the English climate, died. She 
was buried in Gravesend church. She left a son from whom 
several prominent American families claim descent. Among the 
monuments in the church is one to Eustace Rolfe, who died in 
1593, and who was the grandfather of John Rolfe. Accommo- 
dation for visitors is provided at the West Norfolk Hotel and 
Wheatsheaf Inn. 

Heckingham.— A scattered village on the Chet, 4 m. S.W. from 
Geldston station. 

Hedenham. — A village 2^ m. from Ditchingham station. The 
282 



Gazetteer 



church, a fine early English building, contains many memorials 
to the Bedingfield family. 

Heigham. — A parish forming part of Norwich. 

Helhoughton. — A parish | m. S.W. from Raynham Park station. 

Hellesdon — A village, with a station, 2 m. N.W. from Norwich. 
The church contains some brasses. 

Hellington. — A village 4 m. S. from Buckenham station. 

Hemblington. — A village 3 m, N.E. from Brundall station. 

Hempnall. — A large. village on the Tas, 3^ m. N.E. from Flordon 
station. 

Hempstead. — A coast parish 4 m. N.E. from Stalham station. 

Hempstead-by-Holt. — A parish 2 m. S.E. from Holt station. 

Hempton. — A parish on the Wensum, adjoining Fakenham. The 
church has a good modern reredos. 

Hemsby. — A coast parish, with a station, 6 m. N. from Yarmouth. 

H ETHEL. — A scattered village 2 m. N. from Ashwellthorpe station. 
The church contains a fine monument, with recumbent effigies, 
to Myles Branthwaite, who died in 1612, and a brass to his 
daughter, who died in 1621. The rectory is a moated house. 
A thorn tree, known as the " Hethel Thorn," is said to date 
from the reign of King John. Hethel Wood Farm, formerly 
called Potash Farm, was the residence of Blomfield Rush, who 
murdered Mr Jermyn, Recorder of Norwich, and his son, at 
Stanfield Hall (p. 43). 

Hethersett. — A large village, with a station, 4 m. N.E. from 
Wymondham. The church contains a fourteenth century altar- 
tomb, with effigies to Sir R. Berney and his wife. The stump of 
the Oak of Reformation, under which, in 1549, Robert Kett and 
his followers swore to do away with the abuses of church and 
state, stands in this parish, on the Wymondham turnpike. 

Hevingham. — A scattered village 3 m. W. from Buxton Lammas 
station. 

Heydon. — A village 3 m. N.W. from Cawston station and 2 m. 
W. by N. from Bluestone station. The church contains some 
brasses. Heydon Hall, an Elizabethan mansion, built in 1581, 
was formerly occupied by the first Lord Lytton. On the stone 
balustrade which adorns the roof are some curious figures, and 
above the doors are several shields of arms. 

HICKLING (p. 180).— A Broadland parish 3 m. N.E. from Cat- 
field station. There are scanty remains here of a priory founded 
in 1685. Hickling Broad, a shallow sheet of water three miles in 
circumference, is the largest of the Norfolk broads. Boats may 
be hired at the Pleasure Boat Inn. 

283 



Norfolk 



HiLBOROUGH. — A village 6 m. S. from Swaffham. There are some 
ruins here of a pilgrims' chapel. 

HiLGAY, — A large village i m. S, from Ryston station and 3I m. 
E. from Hilgay Fen station. Phineas Fletcher, author of the 
" Purple Island," was rector here from 1621 until the civil war. 
The old Hall was formerly a seat of the abbots of Ramsey. There 
are 6000 acres of fen in this parish. 

HiLLiNGTON. — A village, with a station, 7 m. N.E. from Lynn. 
The church contains some fine old tombs of the Hovel and 
Ffoulkes families. The Hall, built in 1627, has been much en- 
larged. At the entrance gate are remains of four ancient crosses. 

HiNDOLVESTON (called Hilderston). — A village, with a station, 8 
m. E. from Fakenham. In the church is a fine brass, dated 1568. 

Hindringham. — A straggling village 4 m. E. from Walsingham 
station. The old moated Hall is now a farmhouse. 

Hingham. — A small market town 3 m. S.W. from Kimberley station. 
The church is a fine building in the Late Decorated and Perpen- 
dicular styles. Its east window is filled with stained glass obtained 
abroad in 1813 by Lord Wodehouse of Kimberley. In the chan- 
cel is a fine but defaced altar-tomb to Thomas, Lord Morley, 
Marshall of Ireland, who died in 1435. A covenant remains by 
which Henry V. agrees that this Lord Morley should have all the 
prisoners he could take except kings, princes, and king's sons. 
On the north side of the chancel are remains of what is supposed 
to have been a sacristy. There are also some interesting mural 
paintings. 

HOCKERING. — A village 6 m. E. from Dereham. 

HOCKHAM, Great. — A village 2 m. N.E. from Wretham station. 
The church, the tower of which has fallen, stands in the park of 
Hockham Hall. 

HOCKWOLD-CUM-WILTON. — A village I m. N. from Lakenheath 
station. The church of St James (Wilton) contains an ancient 
carved oak screen. 

Hoe. — A village 2 J m. N. from Dereham. 

HOLKHAM. — A coast village, with a station, if m. W. from Wells. 
The church stands on an artificial mound, supposed to be of 
Saxon construction, and close to a tumulus. It contains a 
splendid monument, with a recumbent figure, by Sir J. E. Boehm, 
to the late Countess of Leicester, and other monuments of the 
Coke family. On the Holkham marshes is a large Roman camp. 
Holkham Hall, the seat of the Earls of Leicester, is famous for its 
priceless collection of art treasures, which includes the follow- 
ing : — Pictures : The original cartoon of " La Belle Jardiniere," 
Raphael; "Joseph recognised by his Brethren," iP^z/^a;^/; "A 
Storm," Poussin ; " Return from the flight into Egypt," Rubens ; 
"Duke of Aremberg," Vandyck; "An Evening Landscape," 
284 



Gazetteer 



Claude Lorraine; "A Thunder Storm," Poussin; "Duke of 
Richmond," Vandyck ; " Landscape with the Sacrifice of Isaac," 
Dotnenichino ] landscape, Salvator Rosa; "Judith giving the 
head of Holofernes to the Maid," Carlo Maratti-\ "Rubens' 
Daughter, "i??«^^« J ; "Mary Magdalene," /"a Z(f/ F^ro/z^j^; "Head 
of Christ," Leonardi da Vinci ; "Mary and the Child," Raphael ; 
and other works by Claude, Poussin, Vandyck, Sir Joshua Rey- 
nolds, Canaletti, Rosalba, Gainsborough, Lely, Claude Lorraine, 
and Opie. Statuary : " Neptune," a statue bought at Rome of 
Carlo Monaldi ; ' ' Faun," found in the Campagna ; ' ' Meleager " ; 
"Apollo"; "Venus," of which Dr Waagen says: — "Of all 
similar statues which have come down to us, not excepting 
even that in the Louvre, formerly at Versailles, this perhaps 
deserves the preference"; "Diana," piirchased in Rome for 
;^i5oo and clandestingly exported to Florence; "Ceres," and 
others. The Library contains some very valuable and beautiful 
missals and illuminated manuscripts. There is an obelisk 80 
feet high in the park, erected in 1728; also the "Leicester 
Monument," erected in 1845-8 as a memorial to "Coke of 
Norfolk," the great agriculturist. The gardens are thrown 
open to the public once a week (usually on Tuesdays) ; but 
admission to the hall can only be obtained by special order, 
(p. 98-99). Accommodation for visitors at the Victoria Hotel. 

Holme Hale. — A village near the Wissey, with a station, 5 m. E. 
byS. from Swaffham. The chiorch, in the Norman style, contains 
a fine carved oak rood screen. 

Holme - NEXT -RuNCTON,— A village ij m. S.E. from Magdalen 
Road station. 

Holme-next-the-Sea. — A coast village 3 m. N.E. from Hunstan- 
ton station. The church contains an interesting alabaster monu- 
ment with kneeling figures to Richard Stone, dated 1607 ; also a 
curious brass, with figures, to Henry Netyngdon, one of Henry 
IV. 's judges, bearing this inscription : 

" Henry Netyngdon and his wyfFe lye here 

Yt madden thys church stepull and queere 

Two vestments and bells they made alsoe 

Christ Jesu sav therefor ym fro woe 

And to bryng ther soules to bliss of hevyn 

Syth Pater and Ave with mylde Steven." 

*' Peddar's Way," supposed to have been a Roman road from 
Thetford to the coast, terminated here. It may still be traced in 
places. There is accommodation for visitors at the White Horse 
Inn and elsewhere in the village. 

Holt. — A small market town, with a station, 10 m. W. by S. from 
Cromer. The church communion plate includes a flagon pre- 
sented by George II., and a paten given by Sir Robert Walpole. 
This town was the birthplace, in 1507, of Sir Thomas Gresham, 
founder of the Royal Exchange. His brother founded the 
Grammar School, since re-built, outside which Thomas Cooper, 

285 



Norfolk 



its master, was hanged for adherence to the cause of Charles I. 
The principal inns are the Feathers, White Lion, and Railway 
Hotel. 

HoLVERSTON, — A village 5 m. S.E. by E. from Norwich. 

Honing. — A Broadland village on the Ant, with a station. The 
"Long Lane" leading to the church is a very charming road 
overshadowed by trees. 

HONINGHAM. — A village 5 m. S. from Attlebridge station. The 
church contains a black and white marble monument, with 
medallion portrait in armour, to Sir Thomas Richardson, Master 
of Cramond, who died in 1642. The Hall, a fine Elizabethan 
mansion built by Chief Justice Richardson, contains, among 
other art treasures, the "Infant Family of Charles I" (a dupli- 
cate of that at Windsor), and the " Princes Rupert and Maurice" 
by Vandyck. 

HORNING. — A Broadland village on the Bvire, 3I m. E. from 
Wroxham. The ruins of St Benet's Abbey, founded by King 
Canute, are in the parish. This is an angling resort, and 
boats may be hired at the New and Ferry Inns, where there 
is accommodation for visitors. 

HoRNiNGTOFT. — A scattered village 3 m. N.W. from North Elmham 
station. 

Horsey. — A coast village 4 m. N. from Martham station. The 
church, an ancient Gothic building, contains a thirteenth 
century rood screen. This place has been the scene of several 
disastrous inroads of the sea. 

HoRSFORD. — A scattered village 2 m. E. from Drayton station. 

Horsham St Faith's. — A parish 3 J m. E. from Drayton station. 
The church contains a mediasval pulpit with painted panels ; 
also an ancient font and screen, 

HoRSTEAD - CUM - Stanninghall. — United parishes. Horstead 
village is on the Bure, \ m. from Coltishall station. Its church 
has a good open timber roof. Stanninghall church has been in 
ruins since the reign of Elizabeth. Haggate Hall, an interesting 
Elizabethan house, is about a mile from Horstead. 

Houghton-in-the-Dale. — A village i m. S. from Walsingham 
station. The church, re-built in 1879, l^^s an old illuminated 
rood screen. On the Walsingham Road is an old wayside 
chapel (recently restored) called the "Shoe House," at which 
pilgrims to Walsingham cast off their shoes. 

Houghton-on-the-Hill. — A parish of one farm 2 m. S.W. from 
Holme Hale station. Some of the church windows are believed 
to date from about 1020. 

HOUGHTON, NEW, or HOUGHTON-IN-THE-BRAKE.— A vil- 
lage 3 ra. N. from Massingham station. The church tower was 
286 



Gazetteer 



built by Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister, who was buried 
in the church. He also built Houghton Hall, which is, perhaps, 
the finest mansion in Norfolk. This historic hall is referred to at 
length in Itinerary IX. The magnificent collection of paintings 
it contained at the death of Sir Robert was sold by George, third 
Earl of Orford, to Catherine of Russia for ;,^40,55o. Writing of 
this sale, Horace Walpole said : ' ' When he sold the collection 
of pictures at Houghton, he declared at St James's that he was 
forced to it, to pay the fortunes of his uncle, which amounted to 
but j^io,ooo ; and he sold the pictures for ^^40,000, grievously to 
our discontent, and without any application from us for our 
money, which he now retains, trusting that we will not press him, 
lest he should disinherit us, were we to outlive him. But we are 
not so silly as to have any such expectations at our ages ; nor, 
as he has sold the pictures, which we wished to have preserved in 
the family, do we care what he does with the estate. Would you 
believe — yes, for he is a madman — that he is refurnishing 
Houghton ; ay, and with pictures too, and by Cipriani, That 
flimsy scene painter is to replace Guido, Claude Lorraine, 
Rubens, Vandyck, &c." At the winter exhibition at the Royal 
Academy, 1899- 1900, patrons had an opportunity of seeing one 
of the finest pictures from the famous Houghton collection. 
This was Vandyck's " Lord Philip Warton," described as a work 
of " supreme artistic beauty enhancing physical attractiveness." 
It was lent by the Tsar of Russia. At the present time the Hall 
contains a whole-length portrait of George I. by Kneller, a fine 
bronze cast of the Laocoon by Girarchon, some sculpture by 
Rysbrach, several portraits of the Walpole family, and some good 
tapestry. 

HovETON St John. — A Broadland village in which is Wroxham 
station and Hoveton Little Broad (60 acres). 

HovETON St Peter. — A scattered village ij m. N. from Wroxham 
station. 

Howe. — A village 5 m. E. from Swainsthorpe station. 

Hunstanton, (p. 100). — A popular and rising seaside resort on the 
N.W. point of the county, 15J m. from Lynn, and 112 from 
London. It occupies an elevated position on Hunstanton Cliff, 
which rises to a height of about 60 feet above the beach, and is 
also known as St Edmund's Point, there being a tradition that 
Edmund the Martyr landed here when he crossed over from 
Germany. A splendid beach affords safe bathing, and a delight- 
ful promenade for miles along the coast. The pier is close to the 
esplanade, adjoining which is a recreation ground with good 
tennis courts. A modern church has accommodation for about 
500 persons, and there are also Nonconformist chapels. On the 
cliff, near the lighthouse, is a fragment of St Edmund's Chapel, 
an old religious house, the history of which is unknown. The 
local golf club has links on the Old Hunstanton sandhills ; there 
is also a cricket club. 

287 



Norfolk 



Hunstanton Cliff has six strata clearly defined. Commencing 
from the top, they are met with in the following order : — Lower 
Chalky Chalk Marl, White Chalk, Red Chalk, Greensand or 
Glauconite, Dark Brown Pudding Stone or Sandy Breccia. 
Below the cliff strata may be seen the Kimmeridge Clay. The 
Red Chalk occurs nowhere else in Norfolk. The neighbourhood 
provides a good field for botanists, entomologists, and con- 
chologists ; and ornithologists will be much interested in observ- 
ing the numerous sea birds which frequent the shore. 

The chief hotels are the Sandringham (G.E.R.), Wales's Com- 
mercial, the Golden Lion, and the Temperance. There are also 
private hotels and abundant boarding-house accommodation and 
apartments. 

Hunstanton, Old. — A coast village about a mile from Hunstanton. 
The hall, built in the fifteenth century, stands in a manor of 
which the L' Estranges have been lords ever since the Conquest. 
Both hall and church are described on p. loi. There is accom- 
modation for visitors at the L' Estrange Arms. 

HuNWORTH. — A parish 2 m. S.S.W. from Holt station. 

ICKBOROUGH. — A parish 6 m. N.E. from Brandon station. The 
church contains a finely carved pulpit. 

Illington. — A village i\ m. E. from Wretham station. 

Ingham (p. 174). — A village i| m. E. by N. from Stalham station. 

Ingoldisthorpe (p. 108). — A village i m. E. from Snettisham 
station. The church contains a Perpendicular oak screen, the 
font is Norman, and the corbels of the nave roof represent the 
patriarchs and prophets. 

Ingworth. — A village 2 m. N. from Aylsham. 

Intwood. — A village 3 m. E. from Hethersett station, 

Irmingland. — A parish on the Bure, i m. E. from Corpusty station. 

Irstead. — A straggling village on the banks of Barton Broad, 3 
m. N.W. from Wroxham station. In the church chancel is a 
memorial window to William of Wykeham, founder of New 
College, Oxford, and bishop of Winchester, who was rector here 
in 1347. 

Islington. — A village 2 m. S. from Clenchwarton station. This is 
the place referred to in the old ballad, " The Bailiff's Daughter of 
Islington." 

Itteringham. — A village 4 m. N.W. from Aylsham. 

Kelling. — A parish 3 m. N. from Holt station. 

Kempston. — A parish 2 m. N. from Fransham station. 

KenninghaLL. — A large village 3 m. S.E. from Eccles Road 
station, and connected by a mile-long avenue of trees with Quiden- 
ham. It is believed to have been a seat of the East Anglian 
288 



Gazetteer 



kings, and some ancient mounds are pointed out as marking 
the site of their royal residence. Here, too, are remains of the 
fosse of a castle formerly occupied by the Mowbrays and 
Howards. Kenninghall Palace, built in the reign ot Henry 
VHI., sheltered Queen Mary at the beginning of her reign. 
It remained the chief seat of the Howards, Dukes of Norfolk, 
until about the beginning of the seventeenth century, when it 
was pulled down. 

Keswick. — A parish 3 m, S.S.W. from Norwich, All that remains 
of the church is a portion of a round tower. 

Ketteringham. — A village i m. S.W. from Hethersett station. 
The church contains several interesting monuments and brasses, 
and a richly carved font. The Hall, the seat of the Boileau 
family, who are direct descendants from Etienne Boileau, first 
Grand Provost and Governor of Paris in 1250, is a modernised 
castellated mansion of the Tudor period. In it is a fine collec- 
tion of arms and armour (including the sword of Bayard), 
pictures, and oak furniture. 

Kettlestone. — A parish 3 J m. E.N.E. from Fakenham. 

KiLVERSTONE. — A parish on the Thet, 2 m. E. from Thetford. 
The church is an ancient building in the Norman style, with 
a round embattled tower. 

KiMBERLEY (p. 46). — A village, with a station, 3I m. N.W. from 
Wymondham. The Hall, the seat of the Earl of Kimberley, 
K.G., P.C., contains a portrait of Vandyck, by himself; a rosary 
given by Catherine, Queen of Henry V. , to the wife of Sir John 
Wodehouse, who fought at Agincourt ; and a portion of a gold 
brocade dress worn by Queen Elizabeth when she stayed at 
Kimberley during a visit to Norfolk in 1578. She was enter- 
tained in the old Wodehouse Tower, some remains of which 
may be seen near the church. The park is remarkable for its 
fine oak wood. There is a fifteenth century brass in the church, 
and several monuments to the Wodehouses. 

KiRBY Bedon. — A village ql\ m. S.E. from Trowse station. 

KiRBY Cane. — A village x\ m. N. from ElUngham station. The 
church has a Norman doorway. 

KiRSTEAD. — A village 6 m. S.E. from Trowse station. The Hall, a 
Jacobean mansion, dated 1612, is now a farmhouse. 

Knapton. — A parish, with a station, 2f m. N.E. from North 
Walsham. The church roof is ornamented with some fine 
carved work, and the font bears a curious Greek inscription 
which can be read backwards or forwards. There is a fine 
chancel screen. 

Lakenham. a parish forming part of Norwich. 

Lammas, with Little Hautbois. — A village on the Bure, i m. E, 
from Buxton Lammas station. 

T 289 



Norfolk 



Langford. — A parish 8 m. N.E. from Brandon station. 

Langham. — A parish 5 m. W.N.W. from Holt station. The 
church contains a Norman font, also a marble tablet to 
Captain Frederick Marryat, R.N., the famous novehst, who 
resided here, and is buried in the churchyard. He lived in 
the Manor Cottage, where he wrote most of his works. 

Langley. — A scattered village 3 m, S.W. from Buckenham 
station. Some of the stained glass in the church windows 
was brought from Rouen Cathedral at the time of the French 
Revolution. Not far from the river (Yare) are some remains 
of a Premonstratensian abbey, founded in 1198 by Robert 
FitzRoger, Sheriff of Norfolk. A stone cross, bearing four 
statues, which stood near the abbey, is now in Langley 
Park. Langley Hall, built in 1740, has some fine windows of 
German stained glass, and contains a bronze statue of Louis 
XV. by De la Colonge, and a large number of valuable pictures, 
including a "Madonna" by Murillo, "Holy Family" by Fra 
Bartolommeo. "Battle of Sale Bay" by Vandervelde, and 
' ' The Youthful Moralist " by Sir J. Reynolds. 

Larling. — A scattered village i m. N. from Harling Road station. 
The church contains an ancient altar-stone and has a Norman 
doorway. 

Lessingham. — A village near the coast, with a station, 3J m. N.E. 
from Stalham. The church is disused in consequence of its 
dilapidated condition. 

Letheringsett. — A village i m. N. from Holt station. The church 
has a round Norman tower and a Norman font. 

Letton. — A parish 4 m. W. from Thuxton station. The Hall is the 
seat of Lord Cranworth. 

Lexham, East. — A village 3 m, N. from Dunham station. 

Lexham, West. — A parish 4 m. N. from Dunham station. The 
church tower is probably of Saxon date. 

Leziate. — A parish 2 m. N. from East Winch station. Only the 
foundations of the church remain. 

Limpenhoe. — A village near the Yare, ij m. N.E. from Cantley 
station. The church has a fine Norman south doorway. 

Ling WOOD. — A village, with a station, 8 m. E. from Norwich. 

LiTCHAM.— A parish 3 m. N.E. by E. from Dunham station. The 
church, a large Perpendicular building, contains an elaborate oak 
screen dating from the early part of the fifteenth century. A 
house here called the " Priory " was formerly a pilgrim's rest. 

LoDDON (p. 159). — A small market town 5 m. S. from Buckenham 

station. The church contains an ancient font, an old painted 

rood screen, a brass, dated 1615, to Sir James Hobart, and an 

altar-tomb, with recumbent figure, to Lady Williamson, who died 

290 



Gazetteer 



in 1684. There is also a curious painting, dating from 1496, in 
the south aisle. It represents Sir James Hobart and his wife 
kneeling, also Loddon Church and St Olave's Bridge. An in- 
scription below states that Sir James built the church and his 
wife the bridge. The Swan is the principal inn. 

LONGHAM. — A village 2 m. N. from Wendling station. 

LOPHAM, — A straggling place of two villages and parishes 4^ m. S.E, 
from Harling Road station. The church of North Lopham is a 
large Early English building with a Norman south porch. On 
its exterior and buttresses are several Latin inscriptions. South 
I..opham church has a Norman Tower and some fine Norman 
arches. 

LuDHAM. — A Broadland village on the Bure, 2 m. S.W. from Potter 
Heigham station. The church chancel is'separated from the nave 
by a good carved screen, restored in 1861. Ludham Hall was 
formerly a seat of the abbots of St Benet's Abbey (pp. 166-8). 

Lynford. — A parish 5 m. N.E. from Brandon station. The church 
has disappeared. A Catholic chapel, erected by Mrs Lyne- 
Stephens in 1879, and dedicated to Our Lady of Consolation and 
St Stephen, contains a fine reredos and oak screen. Above the 
marble stoup at the entrance is a statue group of the Madonna 
and Child. The Hall, a mansion in the Elizabethan style, is 
surrounded by 2000 acres of common land, 

Lyng. — A village on the Wensum, 3 m. W. from Lenwade station. 
The church possesses an elaborately embroidered altar-cloth 
fashioned out of three fifteenth century vestments, viz., three 
copes of blue, red, and orange velvet respectively. 

Lynn, King's Lynn, or Lynn Regis (pp. 111-16).— A Parlia- 
mentary borough and seaport on the east bank of the Great Ouse, 
2 m. from the Wash, 48 from Norwich, and 99 from London. 
The chief places of interest in this ancient town are St Margaret's 
and St Nicholas' churches, the Red Mount Chapel, Greyfriars 
Tower, South Gate, Guildhall, Museum, Custom House (built in 
1683), and Docks. These places are referred to in Itinerary VIII. 
A few further particulars concerning them may be added here. 

St Margaret's Church, founded by Herbert de Lozinga, 
Bishop of Norwich 1091-1119, should be visited for the purpose 
of seeing two of the largest and finest monumental brasses in 
existence, measuring 10 feet by 5. They are undoubtedly Flemish 
work. One is that of a former mayor of Lynn, Robert Braunche, 
and his two wives ; the other that of Adam de Walsoken, a 
merchant. On the Braunche brass are represented the mayor 
and his two wives, and eight weepers in male and female costumes. 
At the feet of each lady is a little dog. Underneath is engraved 
a feasting party, supposed to represent an entertainment given by 
Braunche to Edward III. The monarch and his nobles are 
seated at table, minstrels are performing, and on both sides 
female servants are entering, bearing peacocks for the feast. 

291 



Norfolk 



One knight is represented straddling across the table in his eager- 
ness to reach a dish. The other brass bears the portraits of 
Walsoken and his wife, representations of the Apostles and 
Prophets, and below is a rustic scene representing either the 
gathering of apples or a vintage harvest. These brasses, which 
date from the early half of the fourteenth century, are in the 
south-west tower, A screen bearing the dates 1584 and 1622 has 
been divided and set up in the chancel aisles, its place being filled, 
by a low carved screen. Fanny Burney, the authoress of 
" Evelina," was born at Lynn during the time her father, Dr 
Burney, was organist of this church. 

St Nicholas Church, a chapel dependent on St Margaret's, was 
built in the fourteenth century, on the site of an earlier building. 
In the vestry is a door bearing a Latin inscription and two figures. 
The west door and south porch are worthy of special attention. 

The Guildhall, an Elizabethan building, fronted with black 
flints and white stone, contains portraits of William IIL and 
Mary, and Sir Robert Walpole, who was elected M.P. for Lynn 
in 1761. In the possession of the mayor for the time being will 
be found a silver-gilt cup and sword, said to have been given to 
the town by King John before he crossed the Wash and lost all 
his baggage. Both cup and sword, however, are probably of 
later date than the reign of King John. The ' ' Red Register " 
of Lynn, kept at the Guildhall, dates from 1309. 

The object of greatest interest to antiquaries is the Red Mount 
Chapel, situated in the public "Walks " near the station. During 
the rebellion of 1638 it was used as a powder magazine and later 
as a pest-house. There is a legend that Edward IV. lodged in 
it when, after his defeat by Warwick, he fled to Lynn on his way 
to the continent (p. 113). 

Greyfriars Tower is all that is left of the church of a Franciscan 
convent (p. 114). 

Visitors who make Lynn their temporary headquarters may 
make pleasant excursions to 

Sandringham (pp. 103-8). Distant 2 m. from Wolferton 
station. 

Castle Rising (pp. 109-10). Distant 4 m. from Lynn. 

Dersingham (p. 108). A village adjoining Sandringham. 

Hunstanton (pp. loo-i). Distant 15^ m. from Lynn. 

Terrington St Clement's Church. Station 5 m. from Lynn. 

(This church and those of Tilney and Walpole may be visited 
during a day's journey). 

An interesting ramble may be enjoyed in the neighbourhood of 
the docks, and by strolling along the riverside towards the Wash 
the visitor may gain a good idea of Marshland. 

The river Ouse is crossed by a ferry and an iron bridge. The 
chief hotels are the Globe and Cozen's Temperance. 

Lynn, North. — A decayed parish i m, N.W. from Lynn. The 

church has disappeared. 
Lynn, South. — A parish forming part of Lynn. 
292 



Gazetteer 



Lynn, West. — A village opposite Lynn on the west side of the Great 
Ouse. Access to it is obtained by a ferry and bridge. The 
church, dating from the latter part of the thirteenth century, 
contains a fine brass dated 1503, to Sir Adam Outlawe, and an 
ancient octagonal font. 

Mannington. — A parish 2 m. N.E. from Corpusty station. The 
church is in ruins. 

Marham. — A village 4 m. S.W. from Narborough station. The 
church contains a tomb v^^ith chalk effigies, dated 1603. Some 
remains of a Cistercian nunnery, founded in 1249 by Maud, wife 
of John Fitzalan, fifth Earl of Arundel, may be seen at a farm- 
house near the church. 

Markshall. — A parish on the Tas, 2^ m. S. from Norwich. The 
church is in ruins. 

Marlingford. — A scattered village 5 m. N. from Hethersett station. 
The church contains a Norman font and has a Norman door- 
way. 

Marsh AM. — A large village 2 m. S. from Aylsham. The church 
contains a font on which are carved the seven Sacraments ; also 
an ancient painted screen. On Marsham Heath are several pits 
similar to those at Aylmerton (p. 89). 

Martham (pp. 80-81). — A large village with a station 10 m. 
N.N.W. from Yarmouth. The church is a fine Perpendicular 
building, very completely restored in 1855 in memory of one of 
its rectors, whose altar tomb is within. The font has the seven 
Sacraments carved upon it, and there is some good carving on 
the south doors. There is a small broad in this parish. Inn : 
Swan. 

Massingham, Great. — A village ij m. S. from Little Massingham 
station. 

Massingham, Little. — A village, with a station (Massingham), 10 
ra. N. from Swaffham. The church is Early English, and con- 
tains a monument to Sir Charles Mordaunt, dated 1648. This 
station is the nearest to Houghton Hall, built by Sir Robert 
Walpole (pp. 129-32). 

Matlaske. — A parish 4^ m. N.N.E. from Corpusty station. 

Mattishall. — A large village 3 m. E. from Yaxham junction. 

Mattishall Burgh. — A parish 3^ m. E. by N. from Yaxham 
junction. 

Mautby (p. 74). — A parish on the Bure, 3 m. W. from Caister 
station. The church contains a tomb, with a cross-legged effigy 
in armour, to a member of the Mautby family. There are 
frequent references to this place in the " Paston Letters," 
Margaret Paston having inherited the manor from her father, 
John Mautby. 

293 



Norfolk 



Melton Constable. — A village, with a junction station, 8 m. 
E.N.E. from Fakenham. The church has a Norman central 
tower, and contains a family pew, erected in 1681, for the Astleys, 
Barons Hastings, whose country seat, "Melton Constable," is, 
one of the finest in Norfolk. It was built about 1680, is 
surrounded by terraces, and stands in a large park stocked with 
deer. In it are some good pictures, one of the finest collections 
of old china in England, a valuable collection of mediaeval 
treasures, and another of arms and armour ; also a military 
uniform worn by Sir Jacob Astley, who was Sergeant-Major of 
the army of Charles I., and some relics of Queen Elizabeth. 

Melton, Great. — A parish about 3 m. N.W. from Hethersett 
station. The Hall is a mansion in the Elizabethan style, built 
in 1611. 

Melton, Little. — A scattered parish 2 m. N. from Hethersett 
station. The church contains a Norman font, a carved chancel 
screen, a brass dated 1604, and others more recent. 

Mendham. — A village 2 m. S.E. from Harleston station. The 
greater part of the village is in Suffolk. 

Merton. — A parish 2 m. S. from Watton station. The church con- 
tains a good Decorated chancel screen, and a fine carved oak 
font cover reaching nearly to the roof ; also two brass shields 
bearing the de Grey quarterings. The Hall, the seat of Lord 
Walsingham, was built in 1613, but has been thoroughly restored. 
It is in the Elizabethan style. 

Methwold. — A large village 4 m, S.W. from Stoke Ferry station. 
The church has a fifteenth century roof with some good and in- 
teresting carving, and contains the remains of a fine brass to Sir 
Adam de Clifton, dated 1367, A tithe barn still standing here is 
that of the Augustinian priory of Bramwell (later Broomhill). 

Melton. — A parish 2,2, "^- S. from Cromer. There is a fifteenth 
century brass in the church. 

Middleton. — A village, with a station, 4 m. S.S.E. from Lynn. A 
lofty gate-tower here is all that remains of a hunting castle be- 
longing to the Lords Scales. It was restored and enlarged in 
i860. About a mile south of the village are the ruins of Black- 
borough Priory, founded by Roger Scales in the reign of 
Henry I. 

MiLEHAM. — A parish 4J m. N.E. from Fransham station. The 
birthplace of Sir Edward Coke, the famous Lord Chief Justice, 
who was buried, in 1634, in Tittleshall Church, about 2 m. N.W. 
from Mileham. The house in which he was born, in 1552, 
has been pulled down. Here are some remains of a castle, 
believed to have been built by Alan, son of Flaad, to whom the 
manor was given by the Conqueror. 

MiNTLYN. — A decayed parish 2^ m. E. by S. from Lynn. The 
church is in ruins. 
294 



Gazetteer 



MoRLEY St Botolph.— a village 3 m. W. by S. from Wymond- 
ham. 

MoRLEY St Peter. — A small parish 2 m. N.W. from Spooner 
Row station. The Old Hall, an Elizabethan moated manor- 
house, is now a farmhouse. 

Morningthorpe. — A village about 4 m. E. from Forncett station. 
The church contains a fine altar tomb and, in front of the 
western gallery, an oak carving of the royal arms. Boyland Hall, 
in this parish, is an Elizabethan house, built in 1571. It has a 
a bust of Queen Elizabeth, removed from Tilbury House, above 
one of the entrances. 

Morston. — A parish 6 m. E. from Wells and i m. from the coast. 
The church contains an ancient screen and font, and a brass 
dated 1596. 

Morton-on-the-Hill, — A village on the Wensum, i m. S. from 
Attlebridge station. 

Moulton. — A scattered parish 2 m. N. from Cantley station. The 
church is an ancient building in the early Norman style. 

Moulton St Michael, — A village 2 m. N. from Tivetshall station. 
There is a fourteenth-century tomb in the churchyard ; also a 
stone to a member of the Wykeham family. 

Mulbarton-with-Kenningham. — A village surrounding a large 
green, 2 m. W. from Swainsthorpe station. 

MUNDESLEY. — A rising seaside health and pleasure resort, with a 
station, 8 m. S.E. from Cromer. Though still only a village, 
Mundesley is fast gaining favour on account of its excellent beach 
and bathing, bold cliffs, and picturesque surroundings. Every 
year sees an increase in its accommodation for visitors, and it has 
already become an enterprising rival to Cromer. The church 
was originally a fine building, but its tower and chancel are now 
in ruins, service being held in a small portion of the nave. The 
G.E.R. issue week-end, fortnightly, and tourist tickets from 
London and most of the principal stations to Mundesley. 
Visitors will find accommodation at the Royal, Clarence, and 
Old Ship Hotels, the Lifeboat Inn, the Tower Boarding-House, 
and elsewhere in the village. 

There are many places of interest in the neighbourhood, includ- 
ing Bromholm Priory (p. 83), Knapton, Paston, and Trunch 
Churches, Overstrand, Sidestrand, Trimingham, and Cromer. 
Others are mentioned under Cromer. 

MuNDFORD. — A parish 4^ m. N.E. from Brandon station. 

MUNDHAM. — A village 2 J m. W. from Loddon and 6 m. N. from 
Ditchingham station. The church is an ancient building in the 
Norman style, with a good Norman south doorway. 

Narborough.— A village, with a station, 5I N.W. from Swaffham. 
The church contains several brasses to the Spelman family ; also 

295 



Norfolk 



a. window containing some old glass and a shield of the Spelman 
arms. Narborough Hall was built by John Spelman, Justice of 
the Common Pleas, in the reign of Henry VHI, A curious earth- 
work extends from Narborough to Caldecott, a distance of about 
9 miles. 
N ARFORD. —A parish i^ m. N. E. from Narborough station. Narford 
Hall, the seat of the Fountaines, was built by Sir Andrew 
Fountaine, who was knighted by William HI. This Sir Andrew 
was vice-chamberlain to the Prince of Wales in 1726, and a friend 
of Pope and Swift. 

Neatishead. — A village between the Bure and the Ant, 3^ m. N.E. 
from Wroxham station. The church was originally a much 
larger building. 

Necton. — A village i| m. N.Jfrom Holme Hale station. The church 
has a curiously wrought roof adorned with ten large figures of 
angels, carved in oak, below which, on brackets, are the twelve 
Apostles. Adjoining the chancel is a chapel of St Catherine. 
The pulpit of carved oak dates from 1636. There are brasses 
here to Israena de Wynston (1372), Philippa de Beauchamp 
(1384), and two others of the sixteenth century. 

Needham. — A scattered village i^ m. S.W. from Harleston station. 

Newton-by-Castle-Acre. — A village 3 m. N.W. from Dunham 
station. The church is said to date from the reign of Edward 
the Confessor. 

Newton Flotman. — A village i| m. N.E. from Flordon station. 
In the church is a brass of the Blondeville family, with dates from 
140010 1638. 

Newton, West. — A village 2 m. E. from Wolferton station and 
adjoining Sandringham. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales is the 
chief landowner, and has erected a number of cottages, also a 
clubhouse, for the villagers. The church, an ancient Caen stone 
building in the Perpendicular style, was until recently in a very 
dilapidated state ; but has now been restored at the expense of 
the Prince of Wales and other members of the royal family. The 
chancel stalls were given by the Duke of Edinburgh, and the 
reredos by the late Duke of Albany. The west window was filled 
with painted glass at the cost of Prince and Princess Christian, 
the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, Princess Louise, and the 
Marquis of Lome. Her Majesty the Queen gave the organ ; the 
Emperor Frederick IH. and the Empress of Germany the altar 
cross, candlesticks, and flower vases ; the Duke and Duchess of 
Cambridge the altar cloth ; Lord Colville of Culross an alms 
dish ; and the prayer desks and pulpit were presented by mem- 
bers of the Sandringham household. 

Nordelph. — A hamlet forming part of Upwell, 4 m. W. from 
Downham. 

NORTHREPPS. — A village 2 m. S.E. from Cromer. Sir Thomas 
296 



Gazetteer 



Fowell Buxton, Bart., the slave emancipator, formerly occupied 
the Hall. He died here, and is buried in the ruined church at 
Overstrand. The Hall is an Elizabethan house, considerably 
modernised. 

NORTHWOLD.— A village 3 m. S.E. from Stoke Ferry station. The 
church has a finely painted and ornamented nave roof, and con- 
tains a remarkable Easter sepulchre on the north side of the 
chancel. It is 12 feet high and 9 feet long, and in front are four 
sleeping soldiers. There is an ancient stone cross in the village. 

Norton Subcourse.— A scattered village sj m. S.W. from Reed- 
ham station. 

Norwich. — A city and county in itself, the chief town of Norfolk, 
situated on the Wensum just above its junction w^ith the Yare, 
distant about 20 m. W. from Yarmouth and T13 from London. 

(The chapter entitled "The City of Churches," is entirely 
devoted to Norwich, and should be referred to by readers who 
wish to learn something more of the history and attractions of the 
city than can be gathered from the following remarks). 

The Cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was founded by 
Bishop Herbert de Lozinga in 1096, and is chiefly in the Norman 
style, with Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular inser- 
tions and additions. Its entire length is 407 feet ; width, in- 
cluding the aisles, 97 feet ; breadth across the transepts, 178 
feet ; height of vaulting, 73 feet ; and height of tower with 
spire, 315 feet. The choir with its aisles and chapels, the 
transepts and the central tower, were built by the founder, 
whose work extended so far as the altar of Holy Cross in the 
nave ; but his successor, Bishop Eborard, extended nave and 
aisles westward, his work being completed by John of Oxford, 
who was bishop from 1175. During the thirteenth century 
conflicts between the monks and the citizens resulted in con- 
siderable damage to the building ; but it was restored and re- 
consecrated in the presence of Edward I. and his queen. A 
wooden spire was erected in 1295 by Bishop Walpole, who 
also commenced the cloisters ; but it was blown down in 1362, 
and replaced in 1364-9 by a stone spire. The cloisters were 
completed in 1430. Bishop Goldwell (1472-99) expended a 
considerable sum in repairing the spire, which had been struck 
by lightning ; erecting a chanting chapel, and constructing the 
choir, to support which he added a series of flying buttresses. 
The west front is the work of Bishop Alnwick, whose successor 
designed the stone vaulting of the nave. The north and south 
transepts were vaulted by Bishop Nyx early in the sixteenth 
century. 

The Rev. G. B. Doughty, B.A., in an interesting monograph, 
writes: — "The splendid spire of the Cathedral . . . does not 
impress one from this point (the west aspect) with a sense of its 
height or particular beauty. Yet it is the second tallest spire in 

297 



Norfolk 



England, Salisbury being the first. But stand close under the 
west window and look eastward up the nave ; you cannot 
fail to be struck by the pureness of its Norman style. This 
nave comprises no less than fourteen bays, and again stands 
second amongst English Cathedrals, this time in pomt of length, 
St Alban's having the advantage. The length of the Norwich 
nave is not so apparent at first sight owing to the fact that three 
of its bays are included by the choir screen. The fact that the 
organ on the screen is somewhat insignificant in size is perhaps 
an advantage, as the eye can take in the whole ■ sweep of the 
richly vaulted and embossed roof. It is only possible to convey 
a faint idea of the richness of this roof with its numerous inter- 
sections and remarkable bosses, each of which will repay inspection 
through a pair of good glasses. There are over three hundred of 
these bosses, representing Bible history from the time of Solomon 
to Christ. . . . Norwich Cathedral possesses the only stone 
Episcopal Throne we know to exist in England. ... In the 
procession path north of the presbytery a pretty glimpse is 
obtained of the entrance to the Jesus Chapel, together with a low 
arch upholding a loft, once reached by a winding staircase, 
supposed by some to have been a reliquary chamber, but which 
was more probably a kind of ambulatory connected with the 
sleeping place of the Cathedral custodians. Notice on the other 
side again, south of the presbytery, the Beauchamp Chapel, now 
used as a Consistory Court. It was . . . built about 1320. 
The groined roof was added a century later. Close beside it is 
the old south-east Apsidal Chapel of St Luke, which is now the 
parish church for the parishioners of St Mary-in-the-Marsh. " 

The Cathedral contains a few interesting tombs. That of the 
founder, Herbert de Lozinga, is at the foot of the high altar. 
Originally it was raised above the ground, and on its sides were 
the arms of the members of the chapter in whose time it was 
erected. Its top slab is now let into the floor, and bears a Latin 
inscription by Dean Prideaux. [The tomb of Sir Thomas 
Erpingham (p. 22), the builder of the Erpingham Gate, has dis- 
appeared ; its site is marked by a raised seat along the wall of the 
north choir aisle.] Sir William Boleyn, of Blickling, grandfather 
of Queen Elizabeth, was buried here in 1505. His tomb is in the 
first arch south (counting from east) of the presbytery. The next 
recess contains a monument to Bishop Overall (1618-19) ; and the 
third the tomb of Bishop Gold well (1472-79) the builder of the 
vaulted stone roof. The effigy gives a very good idea of the 
ecclesiastical vestments of the period. Other tombs and monu- 
ments are those of Prior W. Walsham (1218), Sir Thomas 
Windham, vice-admiral (1421), Bishop Wakering (1426), Sir John 
Hobart, attorney-general to Henry VII., Bishop Nyx (1536), 
Bishop Parkhurst (1575), and Chancellor Miles Spenser (sixteenth 
century). The tomb of Bishop Bathurst, who died in 1837, is in 
the south transept. It is the work of Sir Francis Chantrey. 
Bishop Stanley, father of the famous Dean of Westminster, is 
buried in the centre of the nave. The flags hanging from either 

298 



Gazetteer 



side of the junction of choir and transept are the colours of the 
54th or West Norfolk Regiment of Foot. 

Of the Cloisters, Dean Goulburn writes: "The cloisters form 
one of the largest and most beautiful quadrangles of the kind in 
England. They comprise a square of about 174 feet, and are 
twelve feet wide. At first sight they appear uniform in con- 
struction, but upon exammation there will be found a considerable 
difference in form and detail. They were commenced by Bishop 
Walpole about 1297 ; and although proceeded with by succeeding 
prelates, were not completed until 1430. The style of architecture 
is Decorated, mixed with traces of the Perpendicular. The 
eastern part will be found to be the most ancient ; and a pro- 
gressive change may be observed in the tracery of the windows, 
commencing at the north-east corner, and continuing through the 
south, the west, and terminating with the north sides. The roof 
is much admired for its exquisitely beautiful groining, and its 
sculptured bosses at the intersections of the groining." Some 
remains of a priory founded by Bishop Lozinga may be seen near 
the cloisters, the most conspicuous being three clustered columns, 
with curiously carved capitals. 

The Erpingham Gate, which faces the west front of the 
Cathedral, was built by Sir Thomas Erpingham, who fought at 
Agincourt, and to whom Shakespeare makes King Henry V. say 
on the morning of the battle. 

" Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham, 
A good soft pillow for that good white head 
Were better than the churlish turf of France." 

the old knight replying : — 

" Not so, my liege ; this lodging likes me better, 
Since I may say, ' Now lie I like a king.' " 

A figure in a niche of the pediment is supposed to be that of 
the builder. St. Ethelberfs Gate, at the other end of the open 
space known as Tombland, was erected as an act of penance by 
Norwich citizens who had quarrelled with the Prior of Norwich, 
and burnt and sacked his priory. It dates from about 1272. 
The Palace or St. Martitts Gate, on the north side of the 
Cathedral, in St. Martin's Plain, was built by Bishop Alnwick 
about 1430. 

The Bishop's Palace stands on the north side. Little of the 
original building founded by Bishop Lozinga remains. Some 
ruins in the garden are supposed to be those of the entrance into 
the great hall. The chapel, restored in 1662, contains monu- 
ments to Bishops Reynolds and Sparrow. 

The Free Graynviar ScJiool, which stands a little distance from 
the west door of the Cathedral, was originally a chapel dedicated 
to St John. It dates from about 1325. The portico was built 
by Bishop Lyhart in 1463. Lord Nelson and Sir James Brooke, 
the Rajah of Sarawak, were scholars here. The statue of Lord 
- Nelson, opposite the school, is by Milne. 

299 



Norfolk 



A. double arch by the waterside, at the extremity of the close, 
is the old water-gate to the precincts. It is popularly known as 
Pull's Ferry. 

Norwich Castle, which now contains the Museum, stands on 
an artificial earthwork of unknown origin, and overlooks the 
great cattle mart known as the Castle Hill. Although the entire 
building is called the Castle, only the great square Norman keep 
has a right to the name, for the other portions were built for a 
prison in 1824. A tradition generally accepted is that the kings 
of East Anglia had some kind of seat on the castle mound ; but 
history has no definite record of any building existing before the 
Conquest. The first stone fortess was begun by William Fitz- 
Osbern, one of the Conqueror's followers, whose duty it was to 
keep in subjection the vanquished English of the district. In 
1074 the constable was Ralph Guader, upon whom the king 
bestowed the Earldom of Norfolk and Suffolk. Two years later 
Guader married Emma, a daughter of Fitz-Osbern, who, when 
her husband rebelled against the king, and was absent from 
home, held the castle for three months against the king's troops. 
Of this castle, the Rev. W. Hudson writes, it is doubtful if there 
are any relics ' ' except perhaps a few slight remains in the walls 
of the basement." The existing keep is probably the work of 
Earl Roger Bigod (lord of the castle in the reign of William 
Rufus), and of his son Hugh, who played a prominent part in 
the barons' wars against King Henry III. In 1217 it was taken 
by Louis of France, but soon recovered. From this time until 
1345 it was used as a royal prison. It was then handed over to 
the Sheriff of Norfolk for a county gaol. In 1806 it was trans- 
ferred to the county magistrates, who held it till 1884, when it 
was purchased by the Norwich Corporation and eventually 
converted into a museum. 

The keep was formerly accessible by an external staircase. 
This has been destroyed, but it originally terminated in the 
fore-building known as Bigod's Tower. The interior was lighted 
by very narrow windows only. ' ' Between these narrow openings 
on the south side are some curious pipe-like passages in the wall, 
by which the archers could communicate with each other. The 
level of the floor of the basement was several feet lower than the 
present floor. It may be reached by a staircase at the south- 
west corner, and there the general arrangement of the building 
may be seen. It was divided into two halves by a great wall 
running from east to west. The foundations of this wall are still 
there ; it is marked above by the line of modern columns, and it 
rose to the height from which the double-pitched roof now 
springs. The passage through the wall below is the original 
passage. In the northern half of the basement are the bases 
of an arcade of Norman columns, which supported a floor on the 
level of the present gallery. In the southern half will be seen 
another great wall, which sub-divided that half of the building 
into two parts. In the angle between these two walls is the old 
well, a most important feature of such places of refuge. . . . 
300 



Gazetteer 



Beyond the sub-dividing wall are remains of dungeons with some 
interesting scratches made, probably in very early times, by some 
prisoners. . . . The visitor should go up to the gallery. At the 
north-east corner is the great entrance, with its richly orna- 
mented Norman doorway, still existing outside. It gave access 
to the great hall, which extended across the keep on the level of 
the gallery." Hudson. The view from the battlements of the 
keep is a grand one. The visitor who wishes to identify its 
various features will do well to obtain a detailed description of 
them sold in the castle. 

Some reference to the contents of the M^iseum is made in 
Itinerary II. ; but to fully appreciate its splendid collections the 
visitor should get Mr T. Southwell's "Official Guide to the 
Norwich Gastle Museum" (is.). 

Omitting those recently built, the following are the Norwich 
churches. 

St Peter Mancroft in the Upper Market Place (p. 24). 

St Andrew's, in Broad Street, rebuilt in 1506 ; contains some 
interesting monuments of the Suckling Family, especially one to 
Sir John Suckling, the secretary, comptroller, and privy coun- 
cillor to James I. ; and another to Abraham Lincoln, said to have 
been an ancestor of the American President. 

All Saints, in Westlegate Street, contains a handsome font. 
St Augustine's, in St Augustine Street. 
St Benedict's, in St Benedict's Street. 
St Clement's, in Colegate Street. 
St Edmund's, in Fishgate Street. 

St Etheldred's, in King Street, has a fine Norman doorway 
and round tower with octangular belfry storey. 

St George Colegate contains some fine oak carving ; also the 
tomb of "Old Crome," the famous Norwich artist (p. 24). 

St George's, Tombland. 

St Giles's, in St Giles's Street. A fine Perpendicular church 
with a tower 120 feet high. It contains some good brasses. 

St Gregory's, in Pottergate Street, has the altar raised above 
the level of the floor, and a passage beneath it. It contains a 
brass lectern, dated 1496, an interesting ringer's gallery, 
remnants of an old painted screen, and a Sanctuary Knocker on 
the vestry door. 

St Helen's, in Bishopgate Street, now the church of St Giles's 
Hospital (p. 25). 

St James', Pockthorpe, contains an ancient font ornamented 
with carved figures. 

St John's, Maddermarket, contains some fine brasses, and a 
tablet to the second wife of the fourth Duke of Norfolk. 

301 



Norfolk 



St John de Sepulchre, in Ber Street. 

St John the Baptist, Timberhill. 

St JuHan's, in King Street, has a Norman doorway and con- 
tains other Norman work. Its round tower is beUeved to date 
from before the Conquest. 

St Lawrence's, in St Benedict's Street (p. 25). 

St Margaret's, between Lower Westwick and St Benedict's 
Streets. 

St Martin's-at-Oak, in Oak Street. 

St Martin's-at-Palace, in Palace Plain. 

St Mary's, in Coslany Street, has a round tower believed to be 
Saxon. 

St Michael's, or St Miles', in Coslany Street, is a good ex- 
ample of Norfolk Perpendicular work, and contains the 
"Thorp Chapel," famous for its flint and stone panelled work, 
(p. 24). Here is also a chantry chapel built by William Ramsey, 
mayor in 1502-8, and containing his altar tomb. 

St Michael-at-Plea, in Queen Street, has a reredos composed 
of restored fourteenth century panel paintings. 

St Michael-at-Thorn, in Ber Street, has a Norman porch. 

St Paul's, in St Paul's Square, has an ancient round tower. 

St Peter Hungate, on Elm Hill. 

St Peter Permountergate, in King Street, contains a tomb 
(1623) with recumbent effigies ; also a carved oak reredos with a 
panel picture of " The Last Supper." 

St Saviour's, in Magdalen Street, contains the curiously carved 
stem of an ancient font. 

St Simon's, in Wensum Street, contains some ancient monu- 
ments. 

St Stephen's, in Rampant Horse Street, contains some fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries brasses, and a large number of mural 
monuments. 

St Swithin's, in St Benedict's Street, a dilapidated building, 
containing Norman work and a carved roof, is now disused. 

At the corner of Blackfriars Street is the famous St Andrew's 
Hall, a magnificent Perpendicular building, open daily to the 
public. Originally it was the nave of a Blackfriars priory. It 
was built about the middle of the fifteenth century, when a son of 
Sir Thomas Erpingham was a friar of the priory. The arms of 
his family are on the outside wall of the clerestory. The Hall 
was granted to the city at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. 
Since then it has been used for many civic purposes, and in it 
Charles II. was entertained when he visited Norwich and knighted 

302 



Gazetteer 



Sir Thomas Browne (pp. 34-5). The Triennial Musical Festivals 
have been held in it since 1824. Among the many portraits it con- 
tains are those of Queen Anne, George, Prince of Denmark, Robert, 
Earl of Orford, Horatio Walpole, Lord Nelson, Sir Harbord 
Harbord, by Gainsborough, and the late Lord Stafford. The 
Nelson portrait is by Beachey, and is the last for which the 
gallant admiral sat. Two historical pictures at the west end are 
by Thomas Marti?i, a native of Norwich, and pupil of Cipriani. 
They represent Edward and Queen Eleanor, and the death of 
Lady Jane Grey. Edward VL Middle School, northward of the 
Hall, contains part of the cloisters and domestic buildings of the 
Blackfriars priory. 

The Guildhall, in the market-place, is a black flint building 
dating from the fifteenth century. It contains several portraits 
of early mayors and benefactors ; also the sword of the Spanish 
admiral Don Xavier Winthuysen, taken at the battle of St 
Vincent, and presented to the city by Lord Nelson. The city 
regalia, kept here, includes a mace presented by Queen Elizabeth 
in 1578. In a chamber under the Hall Thomas Bilney the 
martyr was imprisoned until burnt at the stake in the Lollard's 
Pit, near Mousehold Heath. 

The Shirehall, on the east side of the Castle, was built in 1823. 
In it was conducted the trial of Blomfield Rush, who murdered 
Mr Jermy, Recorder of Norwich, and his son, at Stanfield Hall 
(pp. 43-45). The Agricultural Hall, at the city end of Prince of 
Wales Road, was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1882. 

Visitors entering Norwich by Prince of Wales Road cross a 
bridge over the Wensum. A little way above is the Bishop's 
Bridge, built in 1295 by the Prior of Norwich. Some traces of 
the city's old fortifications are seen about here in the Cow Tower 
(so-called from a story that a cow once climbed its stairs), and 
the Devil's Tower, near Carrow Bridge. From the Bishop's 
Bridge it is not far to Mousehold Heath, on a hill of which are 
the barracks and county prison. The Heath was the scene of 
the final battle between Kett's rebels and the Earl of War- 
wick's troops (p. 18). It is now converted into a People's Park ; 
but the greater part of it remains in a wild state. 

Other places of interest in the city are the Old Bridewell in St 
Andrews ; the gateway and staircase of the Strangers' Hall in 
Maddermarket ; Curat's House in the market-place ; the Maid's 
Head Hotel (said to date from 1287) in Tombland ; the Boar's 
Head in St Stephen's ; the old Music House (formerly occupied 
by the Pastons and Sir Edward Coke, the Lord Chief-Justice) in 
King Street ; and George Borrow's House in Willow Lane. 

The following parishes are included in the city : — Earlhatn. — 
The parish church contains a fine carved oak screen and a splendid 
marble monument to the Bacon family. The Hall was the birth- 
place of Joseph John Gurney, the author and philanthropist, 
whose sister, Elizabeth Fry, spent her youth here. Eaton. — A 
parish extending 2 m. S.W. from the city. It has two churches, 
a modern building and an ancient one in the Early English style. 



Norfolk 



In the latter the parents of Henry Kirk White, the poet, are in- 
terred. Heigham. — Here is the Dolphin Inn, formerly the resi- 
dence of Bishop Hall of Exeter, who died here in 1656 (p, 121). 
Lakenham. — A parish on the Yare, extending i^ m. S. from 
the city. New Lakenham. — An ecclesiastical parish formed of 
Trowse and Lakenham. Thorpe Hamlet. — An eastern suburb, 
with a modern church and the ruins of an old one. 



DISTANCES FROM NORWICH. 
The distance from Norwich to Attleborough is about 15 miles. 



Aylsham , 
Cromer , 


, 12 

, 22 


East Dereham , 


. IS 


Downham , 


, 60 


Fakenham , 


. 34 


Harleston , 


. 19 


Lynn , 
Swaffham , 


. 49 
, 28 


Thetford 


31 


Watton 


1 10 


Wells 


. 32 


Wroxham , 


7 


Wymondham , 
Yarmouth , 


9 
24 


Lowestoft , 


. 23 


Ipswich , 

Cambridge 

Ely 

London , 


. 45i 
, 68i 

. 54 

, "32 



Hotels : Maid's Head, Royal, Castle, Bell, Boar's Head, and Living- 
stone (temperance). 

Clubs : The Conservative Club is in the Royal Arcade, the Gladstone 
Club in St Giles' Street, and the Liberal Club on the Walk. 

Libraries : The Norfolk and Norwich Library is on Guildhall Hill, 
and the Norwich Free Library in St Andrew's Street. 

Golf Links : The links of the Royal Norwich Golf Club are at Rabbit's 
Hill, Hellesdon, which overlooks the Wensum Valley and com- 
mands a wide view. The Right Hon. A. J. Balfour pronounced 
them the finest inland course he had ever played on. There is a 
shortened course for lady golfers. 

Ormesby St Margaret (or Great Ormesby) (p. 80). — A village, with 
a station, 5 ra. N. by W. from Yarmouth. The church contains 
some brasses, including one to Lady Alice Clere, aunt to Anne 
Boleyn. 

Ormesby St Michael (or Little Ormesby). — A parish i m. W. from 
Ormesby station. The church contains a fine modern carved 
oak reredos. 

Oulton. — A village i m. N. from Bluestone station. 



Gazetteer 



OusE, Little. — An ecclesiastical parish, a portion of which is in 
Cambridgeshire, 45 m. N.N.E. from Littleport station. It con- 
tains the parishes of Feltwell Anchor and Redmore. 

OuTWELL, — A village partly in Cambridgeshire but principally in 
Norfolk, 6 m. W. from Downham station. The church is a 
fine building in which the three periods of Gothic architecture 
may be easily traced. The roof of the north chapel is beautifully 
painted. Here is a curious rectory house with a detached tower. 

OvERSTRAND (p. 86). — Acoast parish 2 m. S.E. from Cromer. There 
are two churches here ; but one, containing the tomb of Sir 
Thomas Fowell Buxton, the slave emancipator, is in ruins. Of 
late this village has attracted many visitors, for whom there is 
accommodation in a considerable number of new lodging houses. 
The neighbourhood is exceedingly picturesque, and its proximity 
to Cromer gives it many advantages. The cliffs here rise to a 
height of about 90 feet above the beach. Cromer Lighthouse and 
the Royal Cromer Golf Club's Links are in this parish. 

OviNGTON.— A village i^ m. N.E. from Watton station. The church 
has a Norman doorway, and there are traces of old dedication 
crosses on the outer walls. 

OxBOROUGH. — A parish 3^ m. E. from Stoke Ferry station and 7^ m. 
W, from Swaffham. The church is a large building in the Early 
English and Perpendicular styles, with a chapel south of the 
chancel, founded by the Bedingfields in 1513. In the church is 
an altar-tomb, under a marble Corinthian canopy, to Sir Henry 
Bedingfield, who was constable of the Tower in the reign of 
Queen Mary, and died in 1583. Oxborough Hall, a castellated 
mansion built by Sir Edmund Bedingfield in 1482-3, is surrounded 
by a wide moat, but the bridge which leads to the entrance tower 
is modern. The entrance tower itself is eighty feet high and has 
an octangular turret on each side of the archway. The house 
was formerly quadrangular, but the banqueting hall which 
occupied the south side was pulled down in 1778, when two 
wings were added. The most interesting part of the building is 
the King's Room, over the gateway. It contains some tapestry 
of the time of Henry VII., and is traditionally reported to have 
been occupied by that king when he was the guest of Sir Edmund 
Bedingfield. A bed in this room has a coverlet and curtains pf 
green velvet, worked with curiously named representations of 
birds and beasts by Queen Mary of Scotland and the Countess of 
Shrewsbury. Queen Elizabeth stayed at Oxborough when she 
visited Norfolk and slept in the room immediately above the 
King's Room. In a turret of the east tower is a " priest's hiding- 
hole." Oxborough Hall is one of the finest moated and castellated 
buildings in England, aud many visitors to Norfolk will regret 
that it is closed to strangers. The Bedingfield family were 
originally lords of the manor of Bedingfield in Suffolk, and an 
ancestor of Sir Henry George Paston- Bedingfield, Bart., the 
present occupant of the Hall, first settled at Oxborough in the 

u 305 



Norfolk 



early part of the fourteenth century. The estate passed out of 
the possession of the family during the Commonwealth, when it 
was taken from Sir Henry Bedingfield by the Parliament, but it 
was repurchased at the Restoration. 

OxNEAD. — A parish on the Bure, i m. N. from Buxton station and 
3 m. S. E. from Aylsham. The church, almost hidden by trees, 
contains a marble tomb, with alabaster efifigy, to Clement Paston, 
a naval commander who died in 1599. He lived for some time 
at Caister Castle (p. 39), where he held prisoner the French 
admiral Baron de Blanchard, whose ransom was fixed at 7000 
crowns. He was the builder of Oxnead Hall, a magnificent 
mansion of which only a portion now remains, forming part of 
some farm buildings. It contained a fine banqueting hall, in 
which Charles II. was entertained. A fountain basin and some 
statues which stood in the grounds are now at Blickling Hall 
(pp. 133-40). There are frequent references to Oxnead in the 
" Paston Letters." 

OxwiCK AND Pattesley form a parish 3I m. from Fakenham. 

Palling. — A small coast village 4 m. N.E. from Stalham station. 
There is some accommodation here for visitors. 

Panxw^ORTH. — A village 3 m. N. from Lingwood station. A ruined 
tower is all that is left of the old church. 

Paston (pp. 83-84). — A coast parish 4 m. N.E. from North Walsham 
station. The church contains a fine monument by Nathaniel 
Stone to Catherine, wife of Sir Edmund Paston, who died in 
1628, and other memorials of the Paston family. 

Pensthorpe.^ — ^A parish on the Wensum, 2 m. S.E. from Fakenham. 

What is left of the church forms part of some farm buildings. 
Pentney. — A scattered village in which is Narborough station, 6 m. 

N. W. by N. from Swaffham. The fine gateway of an Augustinian 

priory, founded by Ralph de Vaux, is still standing about 2 m. 

W. from the church. 

Pickenham, North. — A village x\ m. W. from Holme Hale station. 

The church contains a reredos of Italian workmanship, and a 

carved oak pulpit. 
Pickenham, South. — A parish 3 m. S.W. from Holme Hale 

station. 

Plumstead (by Holt). — A parish 4 m. S.E. from Holt station. 

Plumstead, Great. — A village 2| m. E. from WhittUngham 
junction. 

Plumstead, Little. — A village 2J m. S. from Salhouse station. 

PoRingland, Great and Little. — United parishes 4^ m. S.E. from 
Norwich. The church, which has a round tower with an octa- 
gonal belfry, has some fine old (restored) oak benches with poppy 
heads. 
306 



Gazetteer 



PosTWiCK. — A village on the Yare, 2 m. E. from Whitlingham 
junction. The church, an ancient building, contains a mural brass 
and memorial window to Archibald, fourth Earl of Rosebery, who 
died in 1868. The present Earl of Rosebery is lord of the manor. 

POTTER HEIGH AM.— A Broadland village, with a station, 11 m. 
N.W. from Yarmouth and 15 m. N.E. from Norwich. This is a 
well-known angling resort, the river Thurne, Hickling Broad, and 
Heigham Sounds being easily accessible from the village. Hick- 
ling Broad is open for sailing and rowing, but a charge of a 
shilling a day is made to anglers. Boats may be hired at the 
Pleasure Boat Inn at Hickling and at Potter Heigham. There is 
some accommodation for visitors in the village. 

Pudding Norton. — A small parish i| m. S. from Fakenham. The 
church is in ruins. 

PuLHAM St Mary Magdalen (called Pulham Market). — A large 
village, with a station, 4 m. N. by W. from Harleston. The Hall 
was formerly the residence of a younger branch of the Percies, 
Earls of Northumberland. 

Pulham St Mary the Virgin. — A village, with a station, 3 m. 
N.W. from Harleston. The exterior of the church is ornamented 
with some curious carved figures. Some of the windows contain 
old glass, one dating from 1380 and another, called the Apostles' 
window, from 1420. The ancient chancel screen has been 
restored. 

Quarles. — A parish adjoining Holkham, 4 m. S.W. from Wells. 

QuiDENHAM. — A village ij m. S. from Eccles Road station. The 
church has a Norman south porch, and in the vestry wall are 
three pillars which probably formed part of a Saxon font. There 
are several memorials here to the Keppels, Earls of Albermarle, 
whose seat is Quidenham Hall, a fine modern house standing in 
a well-wooded park. In the midst of a grove of firs in the park 
is a barrow. There is also a mere about 7 acres in extent 
which affords good fishing. 

Rackheath. — A village 2 m. W. from Salhouse station. 

Ran WORTH. — A Broadland parish 5 m. E. from Salhouse station. The 
church contains one of the first rood screens in the county (p. 168). 
Ranworth Broad, about go acres in extent, is connected with the 
Bure. 

Raveningham. — A scattered village 4 m. N.E. from Beccles. The 
church, which stands in Raveningham Park, contains eight 
canopied memorials to the Bacon family. 

Raynham, East. — A village i| m. S. from Raynham Pai-k station 
and 4 m. S.W. by S. from Fakenham. The church, re-built by the 
Marquis Townshend, has, in the tower, a stained glass window, 
presented by the late Sir Arthur Phayre. In the north aisle is a 
small brass, with effigy in academical robes, to Robert Godfrey, 



Norfolk 



LL.B., who died in 1522, and another to George, son of Roger 
Townshend. The Hall, the seat of the Marquesses of Towns- 
hend, was built about 1630 for Sir Roger Townshend from designs 
by Inigo Jones, and occupies the site of an earlier moated hall. 
It was altered and enlarged by Viscount Townshend, who was 
Secretary of State under George I. , and who married Dorothy 
Walpole, sister of Sir Robert Walpole. The ghost of this lady, 
" The Brown Lady of Raynham," was believed to haunt the grand 
staircase of the hall, and also that of her earlier home, Houghton 
Hall, where George IV., when Prince Regent, was said to have 
been so frightened by her supernatural appearance that he 
shortened his stay in the house. The hall contains some very fine 
pictures, including the famous "Belisarius" of Salvator Rosa, 
presented to Charles, the second Viscount Townshend, by 
Frederick the Great of Prussia, and valued at ^10,000. Here 
are also portraits by Vandyck, Kneller, Sir J. Reynolds, Lely, 
and Wilkie. The park is some 1200 acres in extent, and contains 
a sheet of water nearly two miles long. 

Raynham, South. — A scattered village 2 m. S. from Raynham Park 
station. 

Raynham, West. — A parish 2 m. S. from Raynham Park station. 
The church is in ruins. 

Redenhall. — See Harleston. 

REEDHAM. — A Broadland village, on the Yare, with a station 8 m. 
S.W. by W. from Yarmouth. The church contains a tomb, with 
kneeling effigies, to Henry Berney, who died n 1584. Reedham 
Hall occupies the site of an earlier building, some portions of 
which are incorporated in it. This place is said to have been a seat 
of the East Anglian kings, and a local tradition asserts that it was 
here Ragnar Lodbrock was murdered. Lodbrock was a Danish 
chief, who one day ' ' while hawking for birds among the islands 
on the coast of Denmark, was surprised by a sudden storm, 
driven across the North Sea, and found himself at the mouth of 
the Yare, which he entered, and landed at Reedham, where the 
court of Edmund, King of the East Angles, was at that time 
held. He was received into royal favour, and in hunting was 
frequently attended by the king's huntsman Bern, whom he soon 
excelled in his own profession. Bern became jealous, and at 
length murdered Lodbrock in the woods ; but the murder came 
to light through the affection of Lodbrock's dog, who searched 
the woods till he found his dead master buried under a heap 
of brushwood and leaves. The baying of the hound attracted 
attention, and the scared look and craven manner of the 
king's huntsman betrayed his guilt. Bern was tried, and con- 
demned to be cast away in a boat. Strangely enough, he 
drifted to the coast of Denmark, where, being tortured on the 
rack, to learn what he knew of Lodbrock's death, he concealed 
his own guilt, and attributed the assassination to King Edmund. 
The consequence was that 20,000 Danes, under the leadership of 
308 



Gazetteer 



Hinguar and Hubba, Lodbrock's two sons, invaded East Anglia, 
burned and slaughtered indiscriminately as they went, overcame 
Edmund, took him prisoner, and, after a mock trial, beheaded 
him." — The Land of the Broad. 

Wherry yachts, yachts, and boats may be hired here, and there 
is accommodation for visitors at the Eagle Tavern and Railway 
Hotel. 

Reepham. — A large village with a station, 12 m. N.W. from Norwich. 
The church contains some good brasses, and an altar tomb, with 
a fine cross-legged effigy to Sir Roger de Herdeston, who died in 
1337. Inn : King's Arms. 

Repps-cum-Bastwick.— A small village near Hickling Broad, and ij 
m. S.W. from Potter Heigham station. 

Reymerston. — A village ij m. S.W. from Thuxton station. The 
east window of the church contains some fine Flemish glass, and 
the communion rails are also Flemish work. 

Riddlesworth. — A parish on the Little Ouse, 5 m. S. from 
Harling Road station. 

RiDLiNGTON. — A parish 3 J m. N. by E. from Honing station. 
Figures of the four evangelists serve as pinnacles to the church 
tower. 

RiNGLAND. — A parish on the Wensum, 2^ m. S. from Attlebridge 
station. The church, a fine Gothic building, has an elaborately 
groined nave roof, springing from sixteen shafts supported by 
carved heads. 

RiNGSTEAD, Barret.^ — A decayed parish 2 m. S. from Hun- 
stanton. 

RiNGSTEAD, Great.— A village, formerly consisting of two parishes, 
2 m. from Hunstanton. The Church of St Andrew is an ancient 
building in the Decorated style. Of the Church of St Peter all 
that remains is a circular Norman tower. 

Rockland All Saints and Rockland St Andrew^. — These are 
united parishes 4^ m. W. from Attleborough. All Saints Church 
nave is a fine example of Saxon, herringbone and ashlar work. 
The church contains a cable-stitch tombstone, believed to be the 
oldest in the country. St Andrew's Church is in ruins. 

Rockland St Mary. — A scattered village 6 m. S.E. from Norwich. 
The church is an ancient flint building in the Gothic style. A few 
feet east of it are the ruins of the church of Rockland St Margaret, 
or Little Rockland. Rockland Broad (about 100 acres) adjoins 
this parish and the Yare. 

Rockland St Peter, — A village 4^ m. W. by N. from Attle- 
borough. The church is an ancient flint building with a round 
tower. 

ROLLESBY. — A village i^ m. S.W. from Martham station. The 
church, an ancient building in the Early English style, has a 



Norfolk 



tower partly Norman, and contains a fine altar-tomb, with 
recumbent effigy, to Rose Claxton, who died in 1601 ; also a 
mural monument, with fourteen kneeling figures, to Leonard 
Mapes, who died in 1619. Rollesby Broad is connected with 
Filby and Ormesby Broads, the three extending over 600 
acres. These broads are well-known to anglers. Boats may 
be hired at the Eel's Foot and King's Head inns, Ormesby. 
There is accommodation for visitors at the Horse and Groom 
Inn, Rollesby. 

ROUDHAM, — A parish if m. E. from Roudham junction. The 
church was destroyed by fire, but some parts of its ruins remain. 

ROUGHAM,— A village 4 m. S.E. from Massingham station. The 
church contains several monuments and brasses to the Yelverton 
family. Over the west doorway is a carving of the Crucifixion. 

ROUGHTON.— A village 3 m. N.W. from Gunton station. The 
church, a flint building in the Norman style, has a round tower, 
and on the north side of the chancel are traces of either a vestry 
or chantry chapel. 

ROXHAM.— A parish 2 m. S.E. from Downham. 

ROYDON (near Diss). — A village x\ m. W. from Diss station. The 
church contains some monuments to the Frere family, and its 
south porch was built in memory of Temple Frere, who was 
drowned at Cambridge while attempting to save the life of a 
fellow student. The Hall is the seat of the Freres, a very ancient 
Norfolk family whose most distinguished representative was Sir 
Bartle Frere, Bart. 

ROYDON (near Lynn). — A village 6 m. E.N.E. from Lynn. The 
church has two Norman doorways. 

RUDHAM, East. — A village with a station, 7 m. W. from Fakenham. 
There are some remains here of Coxford or Cokesford Abbey, 
founded in the twelfth century. 

Rudham, West. — A village 2J m. S.W. from East Rudham station. 

RUNCTON, North. — A village 2 m. S.W. from Middleton station. 
The parish contains the hamlet of Hardwick. 

RuNCTON, South. — A village 4 m. N. by W. from DoWnham. The 
church contains a fine Norman arch. 

RuNHALL. — A scattered parish i m. N. from Hardingham station. 
The church is partly in ruins. 

RUNHAM. — A parish on the Bure, 3 m. S.W. from Ormesby station. 
The church is an ancient building in the Early English style. A 
ferry which here crosses the Bure is called Runham Swim. 

RuNTON, East and West form a village on the coast with a 

station at West Runton, 2 m. W. from Cromer. In this village, 

which lies between Cromer and Sheringham, accommodation for 

visitors is fast increasing. A "gap" in the cliffs here is a 

310 



Gazetteer 



favourite subject with artists. The church, recently restored, is 
a fine old building in the Decorated style containing some old 
poppy-headed seats. 

RUSHALL. — A small village 2 m. S. from Pulham St Mary station. 
The church has the stairs leading to the rood loft intact, and 
contains two interesting lancet windows. The Hall, now a farm- 
house, is surrounded by a moat. 

RUSHFORD. — A parish on the Little Ouse, 4 m. S.E. from Thetford. 
The church was formerly attached to the college of St John the 
Evangelist, dissolved in 1541, of which there are some interesting 
ruins. At Shadwell, a hamlet i| m. S.E. from Rushford, is 
Shad well Court, a modern house in the Domestic Gothic style. 
The hamlet takes its name from "St Chadd's Well," a spring 
formerly much frequented by pilgrims. 

RusTON, East, — A scattered village 3 m. N. from Stalham station. 
On the panels of the church chancel screens are paintings of St 
Gregory, St Ambrose, St Augustine, and St Jerome. Richard 
Porson, who became Professor of Greek at Cambridge University, 
was born here in 1759, his father then being parish clerk. 

RuSTON, South, — A parish i^ m. N. from Coltishall station. 

Ryburgh, Great. — A village on the Wensum, with a station, 4 m, 
S. E, from Fakenham, The chiirch contains some good Norman 
arcading. Its tower is believed to be Saxon. 

Ryburgh, Little. — A parish near Ryburgh station. The church is 
in ruins. 

Ryston. — A parish with a station f m. N. , in the parish of Fordham. 
The church, a small Early English building, has a roof 500 years 
old, discovered in 1868 when the plaster ceiling of the chancel 
was removed. Two " leper's" windows, an aumbrey, and a very 
fine piscina were discovered at the same time. There are several 
monuments here to the Pratt family, including one with a white 
marble effigy to Anne, wife of Sir Roger Pratt, who died in 1707. 
Near Ryston Hall is Kett's Oak, or the " Oak of Reformation," 
under which Robert Kett, the Norfolk rebel leader, held his court 
in 1549. 

Saham TONEY. — A village 2 m, N.W. from Watton station. The 
church is a fine Perpendicular building, with a parvise over the 
south porch and a fine oak screen. The font has a carved oak 
cover, dated 1632, and surmounted by a pelican in her piety. 
Some of the benches date from the sixteenth century and are 
poppy-headed. Here is a mere of about 13 acres, in which, it 
is said, eels of a peculiar kind are caught. 

Salhouse. — A village on the Bure, with a station i m, to the west- 
ward. The church is chiefly Early English and has a detached 
embattled tower. It contains an old hour-glass stand, a sanctus 
bell, a crusader's tomb, and two ancient stone coffins. The Hall, 



Norfolk 



a fine castellated Elizabethan house, contains some good pictures 
and other works of art. 

Salle. — A village x\ ra. N. from Reepham station. The church 
stands on high ground, and is one of the finest Perpendicular 
buildings in the county. At one time it possessed five altars, 
raised on a stone platform still to be seen. Part of the screen 
remains, but its figures are nearly obliterated. The font cover is 
suspended by a beam projecting from the gallery. The church 
contains some interesting brasses, including a small one (date 
1440), to Galfridus Boleyne and his wife, who were ancestors of 
Anne Boleyn. Other brasses are dated 1415, 144I1 i453. 1482, 
1483, i486, 1500, 1504, 1505, and 1532. There is a tradition that 
Anne Boleyn's body was removed from the Tower and buried in 
this church, and a black marble slab was formerly pointed out as 
marking her grave (p. 139), A good view of the surrounding 
county may be obtained from the top of the church tower, and 
also from that of the neighbouring church of Cawston, another 
grand Perpendicular building of great interest to antiquaries. 

Salthouse (p. 90). —A coast parish 4 m. N. from Holt station. The 
church, a large Perpendicular building, contains several poppy- 
headed benches. A curious earthwork is to be seen on a heath 
adjoining the parish of Kelling. 

Sandringham (pp. 103-8). —A village ifm. E. from Wolferton station, 
and 7I m. N. by E. from Lynn. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales 
is lord of the manor and occupies the Hall. A description of 
the church, park, and neighbourhood is given in Itinerary VHI. 
Sandringham Park is now thrown open to the public on Wednes- 
days, between 10 A.M. and 4 p.m., when the Royal Family are 
not in residence. Applications for admission should be made by 
post to Mr Back, Estate Office, Sandringham, or personally 
before noon on the day of the visit. Cheap tickets to Sandring- 
ham are issued by the G. E. R. Company on certain days during 
the summer months. 

Santon. — A parish on the Little Ouse, 3 m. E. from Brandon station. 
The church, a small flint building re-built in 1628, contains a 
timber roof, screens, and floor tiles, removed here from West 
Tofts church in 1858. 

Saxlingham.— A parish 3 m. W. from Holt station. A niche in the 
church contains an effigy of the wife of Sir Christopher Heydon, 
who died in 1593. 

Saxlingham-Nethergate. — A village 2.\ m. E. from Flordon 
station. 

Saxlingham-Thorpe.— A parish on the Tas, adjoining Saxlingham- 
Nethergate. The church is in ruins. 

Saxthorpe.— A small village on the Bure, with a station in the 
adjoining parish of Corpusty. 
312 



Gazetteer 



ScARNiNG. — A village 2 m. E. from Wendling station. The church, a 
large building in mixed styles, contains a chantry chapel, a good 
rood screen, and a small sanctus bell in its original oak frame. 
Dr Jessop, the author of " Arcady," "The Coming of the Friars," 
and several archrseological works, is rector of the parish. 

ScoLE. — A village on the Waveney, 2 m. E. from Diss station. The 
church is an ancient flint building in the Early English style. In 
the old coaching days an inn here, the "White Hart," was a 
famous hostelry. It was erected in 1655, and still contains some 
old carving ; but its great sign, on which many figures, including 
those of Diana and Actaeon, Charon and Cerebus, were carved in 
wood at a cost of ^^1057 has disappeared. Thorpe Parva, a 
small hamlet 3 m. E. from Diss, is included in this parish. Only 
a portion of its church tower remains. 

ScOTTOW. — A scattered village 2 m. W. from Worstead station. 

SCOULTON. — A village 4 m. E. from Watton station. There is a 
mere here i| m. in circumference. It is the breeding-place of 
large numbers of black-headed gulls, who build their nests on a 
swampy island. " The sight of the birds of Scoulton," says the 
late Mr G. D. Rowley, ' ' as they rise in a dense mass, filling the 
air like snow, is certainly very beautiful ; and the sound of the 
multitude of voices is music to the ornithological ear. The gulls 
chiefly congregate at each end of ' the heath, ' as the great island 
is called, on which Scotch firs and birches grow. If an unfor- 
tunate heron appears they mob him, and keep even the swans at 
a respectful distance, with blows on the head." Permission must 
be obtained before visitors can examine this interesting " guUery." 

SCULTHORPE. — A scattered village 2 m. N.W. from Fakenham. 
The church contains a brass, with kneeling effigy, to Henry 
Unton, receiver of fines of the Court of Common Pleas, who 
died in 1470 ; and two other brasses, dating respectively from 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It has a fine Norman 
font, bearing sculptured representations of the Adoration of the 
Three Kings. 

Sedgeford. — A village with a station | m. N., 10 m. S.W. from 
Burnham Market. The church contains a Norman font and 
some old woodwork. 

Seething. — A village 5 m. N, from Bungay station. 

Setch. — A parish 4 m. S. from Lynn. 

Sharrington. — A village 3I m. W.S.W. from Holt station. The 
church contains some fifteenth and sixteenth century brasses. 

Shelfhanger. — A village 3I m. N.W. from Diss station. 

Shelton. — A village 5 m. S.E. from Forncett junction. The church 
contains an undated altar-tomb with kneeling effigies to Sir Robert 
Houghton, his two wives and son ; also three altar-tombs to 
members of the Shelton family. The font is old and curiously 



Norfolk 



carved. The Hall, a moated house formerly the seat of the 
Shelton family, is now a farmhouse. 

Shereford, — A parish on the Wensum, 2 m. W. from Fakenham. 
The church is in the Norman and Early English styles, and has a 
round tower. 

Sheringham (p. 90). — A rising seaside resort, with a station, 4 
m. from Cromer. This place is fast gaining popularity among 
visitors to the Norfolk coast, for whom it provides plenty of 
accommodation, and has many natural attractions. The neigh- 
bourhood is charmingly picturesque, its scenery more resem- 
bling that of the Isle of Wight than any other part of the country. 
The cliffs rise to a considerable height, and command wide views 
of the coast ; the beach equals that of Cromer. A great number 
of places of interest are within easy distance of the villages of 
Upper and Lower Sheringham, which together form a parish : a 
list of them will be found under the heading of "Cromer," and a 
description of most of them in the chapter, " By the Wild North 
Sea." The church, a Perpendicular building, contains some in- 
teresting monuments and brasses, including a monument to 
Thomas Heath, who was robbed and murdered near here in 
1635. The links of the Sheringham Golf Club, laid out by Mr 
Tom Dunn in 1891, are on the summit of cliffs rising 200 feet 
above the beach. There is a well-appointed clubhouse. 
Visitors are at all times permitted to walk or drive through 
the grounds of Sheringham Hall. The principal hotels are 
the Sheringham, Crown, and Railway. 

During the summer months omnibuses run each week-day 
between Cromer (G.E.R.) station and Sheringham, in connec- 
tion with the principal express trains from and to London. 

Shernborne.— A village 3 m. E. from Snettisham station. The 
church, which contains a fine ancient font, is said to be the 
second founded by St Felix in East Anglia. 

Shimpling. — A scattered village | m. E. from Burston station. 

Shingham. — A small parish 4^ m. S.W. from Swaffham. The 
church, which has no tower, and has not been used for many 
years, has a fine Early Norman south doorway. 

Shipdham. — A large village 4 m. S.W. from Yaxham station. The 
church, a large building in the Early English style, contains a 
very fine wooden lectern. Over the porch is a parvise containing 
a collection of rare old books, including "The Floure of the 
Commandments," printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1509, and an 
illuminated Psalter of the fifteenth century. 

Shotesham All Saints.— A village 3 m. S.E. from Swainsthorpe 
station. 

Shotesham St Mary.— A parish 2 m. S.E. from Swainsthorpe 
station. This parish consists of three ancient parishes, the 
churches of two of which have been in ruins for several centuries. 



Gazetteer 

Shouldham. — A village 5 m. S.E. from Magdalen Road junction. 

Shouldham Thorpe. — A straggling village 4 m. S.E. from Mag- 
dalen Road junction. 

Shropham. — A parish 3 m. N. from Harling Road station. 

SiDESTRAND. — A coast parish 3 m. S.E. from Cromer. The tower 
of the old church stands on the edge of the cliffs, which rise to a 
height of about 150 feet above the beach. Most of the farmers 
and cottagers in the parish and neighbourhood let rooms to 
visitors. 

SiZELAND. — A village 5 m. S. from Buckenham station. Some ruins 
of an ancient chapel are attached to the church. 

Skeyton. — A scattered parish 3I m. E. from Buxton-Lammas, 
station. 

Sloi.ey. — A village i m. S. from Worstead station.. The church, an 
ancient building in the Early English style, contains a font 
bearing carved representations of the seven Sacraments of the 
Catholic Church. 

Smallburgh. — A village 2^ m. S.W. from Stalham station and 3 m. 
from Worstead station. 

Snarehill, Great and Little. — Form a parish adjoining Thet- 
ford. Several large tumuli in this neighbourhood are supposed to 
indicate the battlefield upon which Edmund, King of the East 
Angles, was defeated and captured by the Danes under Inguar, 
who caused him to be fastened to a tree and shot to death with 
arrows. 

Snetterton. — A scattered village 2 m. N. from Eccles Road station. 
The church contains a painted and gilt carved screen. 

Snettisham. — A village on the coast road from Lynn to Hunstan- 
ton, with a station on the Lynn and Hunstanton line. The 
church, a large flint and stone building, stands on high ground, 
and its spire is a useful landmark to seamen. At one time the 
tower was a central one ; but part of the church has disappeared 
except for some scanty ruins. The west front is in imitation of 
that of Peterborough Cathedral, and contains a fine Decorated 
window. The clerestory windows are alternatively round-headed 
and circular. The monuments include one, with effigy, to Sir 
Wymond Carye, who died in 1612. There is a brass, with 
effigies, to John Cremer, died 1610, Anne, his wife, and seven 
children ; and another dating from about 1500. 

Snoring, Great.— A village 2 m. S. from Walsingham station. The 
rectory house, an ornamental brickwork building, erected by Sir 
Ralph Shelton in the reign of Henry VHL, was restored in 1853 
and somewhat enlarged. 

Snoring, Little. — A parish 3 m. N.E. from Fakenham. The 
church, in the Transition-Norman and later styles, contains two 



Norfolk 



Norman windows and doorways. The south door of the nave is 
a curious mixture of styles. The font is Late Norman. 

SOMERTON, East. — A parish near the coast, 2 m. N. from Hemsby 
station. The church is in ruins. 

SoMERTON, West. — A parish \\ m. N.E. from Martham station. 
In the church are mural paintings of " The Day and Judgment," 
"The Flagellation," ''The Resurrection," and "The Entry into 
Jerusalem." They were discovered about thirty years ago, and 
are believed to date from 1327 to 1377. An interesting Early 
English painting of "The Virgin and Child," which seems to 
have formed part of a rood screen, was discovered under the floor 
of the pulpit about ten years after the mural paintings were 
brought to light. Hales, the Norfolk giant, who was 7 feet 6 ins. 

' in height, was born here and is buried in the churchyard. Some 
portions of West Somerton Hall are very ancient. 

SouTHBERGH. — A village 3I m. S.W. from Thuxton station. The 
church chancel dates from about 1290 and the nave from 1320. 
There is a monument here to Brampton Gurdon, M. P. for Sudbury, 
who commanded the Suffolk Horse at the Battle of Naseby. 

Souther Y. — A village on the Ouse, 4 m. S.E. from Hilgay station. 
The greater part of the parish consists of fen. Originally the 
place was one of the old fen " islands." 

Southrepps. — A village i m. N. from Gunton station. 
SouTHWOOD. — A parish i m. N. from Cantley station. The church 
is in ruins. 

Sparham. — A village on the Wensum, 2 m. N.W. from Lenwade 
station. The church contains an interesting screen, some very 
old benches, and a pre-Reformation pulpit. 

Spixworth. — A village 4 m. N. from Norwich. The church contains 
a fine marble monument with recumbent effigies erected in 1635 
to William and Alicia Peck. 

Sporle-with-Palgrave. — A village 2| m. N.E. from Swaffham 
station. The church, a fine building in the Early English style, 
contains a fifteenth century fresco representing the legend of St 
Katherine of Alexandria. 

Sprowston. — A straggling village 2 m. N. from Norwich. The 
church monuments include one to Sir Thomas Adams, who was 
Lord Mayor of London in 1645 and died in 1667. 

Stalham (p. 174). — A small market town, with a station, 8 m. S.E. 
from North Walsham and 15 m. N.E. from Norwich. The 
church, a fine flint and stone building in the Perpendicular style, 
contains two good brasses, one dating from the fifteenth century ; 
also a very old font upon which are stone carvings of the Apostles 
and the Baptism of Christ. Stalham Broad, famous for its fine 
reeds and water-lilies, is connected with the town by a navigable 
channel, as also is Sutton Broad. Anglers may hire rowing and 
316 



Gazetteer 

sailing boats here, and there is accommodation for visitors at the 
Maid's Head, Railway, Swan, and Temperance hotels. 

Stanfield. — A parish 3J m. W. from North Elmham station. 

Stanford. — A village 6 m. N.E. from Brandon station. 

Stanhoe. — A village, with a station, 4 m. S.S.W. from Burnham 
Market. There are remains here of an ancient cross ; also traces 
of a religious house. 

Starston. — A small village ij m. N. by W. from Harleston. The 
church, which is partly Norman, has a good roof, and contains a 
monument, with kneeling effigy, to Bartholomew Cotton, clerk of 
briefs to the Star Chamber, who died in 1613. It also possesses 
a silver chalice dated 1567. The Hall, now a farmhouse, is an 
old building in the Elizabethan style, partly surrounded by a 
moat. 

Stibbard. — A parish 2 m. E. from Ryburgh station. 

Stiffkey (pp. 96-97). — A village near the coast, 3^ m. E. from Wells. 
The church contains a brass dated 1479. The Hall, erected by 
Sir Nicholas Bacon, keeper of the Privy Seal to Queen EUzabeth, 
was once a fine but unfinished castellated mansion. Traces of 
some ancient entrenchments may be seen on Warborough Hill 
and Camping Hill. 

Stockton. — A village 3 m. N.W. from Beccles. 

Stody. — A village 2 m. N.E. from Melton Constable station. The 
church, a cruciform Perpendicular building with a round tower, 
contains an interesting font. 

Stoke Ferry. — A large village, with a station which is the terminus 
of the Downham and Stoke Ferry line. The church is Early 
English. Inn : Crown. 

Stoke Holy Cross. — A village 2 m. E. from Swainsthorpe station. 

Stokesby-with-Herringby. — A village on the Bure 2| m. W. from 
Acle station. The church, a Decorated building, contains some 
brasses, one a small but good one dated 1488 representing 
Edward Clere and his wife. Some of the bench ends are well 
carved. The tower commands a wide view of the Bure valley. 

Stow Bardolph. — A village if m. S.E. from Stow Bridge station. 
Attached to the church is a mortuary chapel built in the sixteenth 
century, containing several fine monuments to the Hare family, 
who have been lords of the manor since 1553. Most of the 
monuments are of marble ; but one has a wax effigy of Sarah, 
youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Hare, Bart. Stow Hall is a 
red-brick mansion in the Jacobean style, rebuilt by Nicholas 
Hare, Esq. , on the site of an earlier house erected by Sir Nicholas 
Hare in 1589. 

Stow Bedon. — A small parish with a station i J m. N.W. from the 
church, 4 m. S. from Watton. The church contains two lancet 



Norfolk 



windows filled with stained glass from Hildersham Church, 
Cambridgeshire ; also a pine carved oak screen. 

Stradsett. — A village 4 m. N.E. from Downham, The stained 
east window of the church was made at Amsterdam in 1543. 
The Hall is a large and ancient house. Adjoining it is a lake 
of about 20 acres. 

Stratton, Long. — This place, which was formerly a market town, 
is 2 m. E. from Forncett junction. It comprises two parishes, 
Stratton St Mary and Stratton St Michael. St Mary's Church, a 
large flint building with a round tower, contains a handsome 
marble monument, dated 1647, to Sir Edmund Reve, Justice of 
the Common Pleas ; also an altar-tomb to a fifteenth century 
rector. In the vestry is a curious contrivance called a "Sexton's 
Wheel," by which a penance day known as "the Lady's Fast" 
was determined. 

Stratton Strawless. — A village i|m. S.W. from Buxton- Lammas 
station. The church contains a black marble altar-tomb, with an 
effigy in a shroud, above which are the figures of two angels, to 
Thomas Marsham, who died in 1638 ; also a cross-legged figure 
in mail, supposed to be that of Sir Ralph Marsham, who died in 
1250. The Marsham family had the manor from the time of 
Edward I., and one of them, a naturalist and F.R.S., who died in 
1797, planted most of the fine trees which surround the Hall. 

Strumpshaw. — A village if m. N. from Buckenham station. The 
church contains a painted rood screen and some brasses. 

Sturston. — A village 6 m. S.W. from Watton station. The church 
is in ruins. 

SuFFiELD. — A parish \\ m. N. from Felmingham station. 

SURLINGHAM (pp. 152-3).— A village on the Yare, i| m. S. from 
Brundall station. The church of St Saviour is in ruins. St 
Mary's Church is a small Gothic building. This place is a 
favourite Broadland angling resort, and contains Surlingham 
Broad, a sheet of water about 70 acres in extent. The broad is 
connected with the Yare by channels navigable to small sailing 
craft. Boats can be hired at the Yare Hotel (Brundall) and Cold- 
ham Hall Inn. The latter is reached by a ferry which crosses the 
river a few minutes' walk from Brundall station. 

Sustead. — A parish i^ m. S. by W. from Cromer. The old Hall 
was built in 1663. 

Sutton. — A village about i m. from Catfield and Stalham stations. 

SwAFFHAM (pp. 126-7). — A market town, with a station, 28 m.W. from 
Norwich and 145 m. S. E. from Lynn. The church is a large Per- 
pendicular building erected about 1474. Its north aisle is said to 
have been built by John Chapman, whose device, carved in certain 
parts of the church, probably gave rise to the tradition that 
Swaflfham Church was built by a pedlar. Among the monuments 



Gazetteer 



is one to John Botwright, D.D. , seventh master of Corpus Christi 
College, Cambridge, and chaplain to Henry VI. ; another to 
Catherine Steward, who died in 1590. The roof of the chancel 
is finely carved and supported by angels with outspread wings. 
A priest's chamber over the vestry contains some armour and 
books. 

A monument and drinking fountain in the market-place was 
erected in memory of Sir William Bagge, Bart., M.P. The 
market cross was rebuilt in 1783 by Horatio, Earl of Orford, and 
is surmounted by a figure of Ceres. Inn : George. 

Among the places of interest in the neighbourhood of Swaffham 
are: 

Castle Acre Castle and Priory {p. 128), distant 4^ miles. 

Oxborough Hall, distant 7J miles. 

Cressingham Manor House, distant 5 miles. 

Sw AFIELD. — A village 2 m, N. from North Walsham. 

SwAiNSTHORPE. — A village, with a station, 5 m. S. by W. from 
Norwich. The church has a fine restored Perpendicular roof and 
Norman font. 

SwANiNGTON. — A scattered village i m. N. from Attlebridge station 
and 3I m. S. from Cawston station. Robert Kett, the Wymond- 
ham tanner who raised an insurrection in Norfolk in 1549, was 
captured in this parish after the defeat of his followers by the 
Earl of Warwick's troops (p. 18). Swanington Lawn contains 
some fine old oak carving brought from the house of William 
Rogers, mayor of Norwich in 1543 and 1548. 

Sw ANTON Abbot. — A parish 2 J m. W. from Worstead station. The 
church contains a good brass, dated 1477, to Stephen de Multon. 

SwANTON MoRLEY. — A village on the Wensum, 2^ m. from North 
Elm ham station. The church, built by William, third Baron 
Morley, about 1379, is a flint building in the Perpendicular style. 
Portions of the foundations and cellars of the ancient castle of 
the Lords Morley may be seen on the bank of the Wensum, 
opposite Bylaugh Park. 

SwANTON NovERS. — A village 2 m. S.W. from Melton Constable 
station. 

SwARDESTON. — A village 2 m. N. from Swainsthorpe station. Its 
Early English church contains a fine screen. 

Syderstone. — A small village 4^ m. S.E. from Stanhoe station. 
This place disputes with Stanfield Hall, Wymondham, having 
been the birthplace of the unfortunate Amy Robsart, who married 
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and whose death occurred under 
mysterious circumstances at Cumnor Hall, near Oxford, in 1560. 

Tacolnstone. — A village \\ m. S. from Ashwellthorpe station. 
The church contains a Jacobean pulpit, an ancient font, and part 
of a finely carved and painted screen. The Hall, built in the reign 
of Queen Anne, but recently enlarged, is surrounded by a moat. 



Norfolk 



Tasburgh. — A village on the Tas, i| m. S.E. from Flordon station. 
The church, which has a Norman round tower and contains an 
ancient font and several sixteenth century brasses, stands within 
a quadrangular Roman camp about 24 acres in extent, supposed 
to be the Roman " Ad Tavum," a fortress on the chief Roman 
road from Londinium to Venta. Tasburgh Hall is a house in 
the late Jacobean style containing some good oak paneUing, 
chimney-pieces, and antique furniture, 

Tatterford. — A parish f m. N.W. from Raynham Park station. 

Tatterset (or Gatesend). — A small village 2 m. N.W. from Rayn- 
ham Park station. 

Taverham. — A village on the Wensum, i| m. W. from Drayton 
station. The church has a round Saxon tower and contains a 
handsome font. 

Terrington St Clement. — A large village, with a station, 5 m. W. 
from Lynn by ferry and 6\ by road. The church is one of the finest 
Perpendicular structures in the county. It is a large cruciform 
building with a clerestorial nave and detached tower, the latter, 
which is very massive, probably having been built as a refuge 
from floods. The font has a very curious cover, upon the panels 
of which are painted representations of the Baptism and Tempta- 
tion of Our Lord. In the latter the devil wears a red robe and 
golden crown. Another panel represents a forest scene, and above 
are the Evangelists with their emblems and a curious inscription. 
Some wooden framed panels in the transepts contain the Lord's 
Prayer and the Belief, and are dated 1635. During the French 
invasion of Holland, the Prince of Orange sought refuge here, 
and was the guest of Baron Feagle, a Dutch refugee, who lived 
at a house now called Qrange Farm. 

Terrington St John. — A village 3 m. S. from Terrington station. 
The church tower stands some fifteen feet from the church, but 
is connected with it by a structure known as the " priest's house." 

Testerton. — A parish 2 m. W. from Ry burgh station. The church 
has disappeared, except a small portion of the tower. 

Tharston. — A scattered village i m. N.E. from Forncett junction. 
The church contains a monument, with figures of two soldiers 
standing with reversed arms, to the late General Sir Robert John 
Hervey, K.C.B., whose mausoleum is in the churchyard. The 
Hall is an old house in the Elizabethan style. 

Thelveton. — A village 2J m. N.E. from Diss station. The church 
contains a finely carved sixteenth century font. The Hall is a 
picturesque Elizabethan house. 

Themelthorpe. — A village i m. from Guestwick station. 

Thetford (pp. 48-53). — An ancient borough, with junction stations, 
on the border of Suffolk, 31 m. S,W. from Norwich, 20 m. S.E, 
fromWymondham, and 78 m. from London. The town was in- 



Gazetteer 



corporated by Queen Elizabeth in 1573. During the Anglo-Saxon 
period, Uffa, the first king of the East Angles, made it a royal 
seat under the name of Theodford. Strenuously contested battles 
with the Danes were fought in the neighbourhood, at Rushford 
Heath, where there are remains of a camp, and at Snarehill, 
where the fighting lasted several days. In 870, the Danes under 
Inguar defeated King Edmund here, and shortly afterwards slew 
him. In 1004, Sweyn, King of Denmark, to avenge the massacre 
ordered by Ethelred II., burnt the town, as he did again in loio. 
After the Norman Conquest the bishopric was removed from 
Elmham to Thetford, where it remained until Herbert de Lozinga 
removed it to Norwich. A residence called the " King's House," 
still standing in King Street, was used as a country seat by several 
kings. It was rebuilt in the reign of Elizabeth, and given by 
James I. to Sir Philip Wodehouse of Kimberley, whose arms are 
on a stone in the conservatory. Another house called the Manor 
House, primarily the residence of the Earls Warren, became a 
royal seat when the manor passed into the possession of the 
Crown as part of the Duchy of Lancaster. 

The Castle Hill, on the east side of the town, is an artificial 
mound like that upon which Norwich Castle stands. Nothing is 
known as to its origin. 

The Red Castle, which formed the western extremity of the 
town's southern fortifications, is to the left of the Brandon Road. 

The ruins of a Cluniac priory, founded in 1104 by Roger 
Bigod, and removed in the twelfth century from the Suffolk to the 
Norfolk side of the river, are of considerable extent, the Abbey 
Gate being the most imposing portion. Here were buried succes- 
sive generations of the families of Bigod, Mowbray, and Howard, 
who in turn bore the title of Duke of Norfolk. 

The remains of a Saxon monastery known as the Nunnery, 
founded to commemorate the battle at Snarehill, form part of the 
" Place " farm, the conventual church being used as a barn. Ad- 
joining the Boys' Grammar School are some ruins of Great St 
Mary's Church, the cathedral of the See of Thetford. Between 
the Brandon road and the river are some traces of the monastery 
of the Holy Sepulchre, erected in 1109 by William, Earl Warren. 

At one time there were twenty parish churches here, but most 
of these have disappeared, and the remains existing are only frag- 
mentary. The most interesting relic of these vanished shrines is 
the south transept arch of the old church of Holy Trinity, which 
is in the Boys' Grammar School. Of the three churches now used 
for worship, the finest is that of St Mary the Less, a large build- 
ing in the Norman and Perpendicular styles, on the Suffolk side 
of the river. Its square tower contains six bells made in the town 
in 1615. The font is Norman. Sir Richard Fulmerstone, the 
founder of the Grammar School, was buried here in 1566. During 
the civil war between Charles I. and the Parliament, the church 
was used as a stable by the Parliamentary forces. St Peter's 
Church, at the corner of King Street and White Hart Street, is a 
black flint building in the Decorated style. St Cuthbert's, neai: 

X 321 



Norfolk 



the market-place, was almost entirely rebuilt in the middle of the 
nineteenth century. It contains a fine oak screen. 

The Guildhall was first the hall of a guild founded by Gilbert de 
Pykenham in the thirteenth century. The Boys' Grammar School, 
in which Thomas Paine, the politician and theologian, who was 
born in Thetford in 1737, was educated, was founded in 1566, on 
the site of the cathedral church. It was restored in 1880. The 
Bell Hotel is an Elizabethan hostelry, of considerable repute in 
the old coaching days. West of the town lies the great Warren, 
bounded on the north by the Ouse. It abounds with rabbits, and 
on its highest ground stands an ancient building of unknown origin 
called the Warren Lodge. Some interesting excursions may be 
made in the neighbourhood of Thetford, notably in the direction 
of Brandon, famous for its ancient flint-knapping industry (pp. 
54-56, and Gazetteer). The principal inns are the Bell, Unicorn, 
Anchor, and Temperance hotels. 

Thompson. — A parish i m. W. from Stow Bedon station. The 
church, built about 1300, contains a variety of poppy-headed 
benches, and a carved oak screen. The south chapel was built 
about 1450 as a chantry and place of interment for the founder. 
Sir Thomas de Shardelow and his family. 

Thornage. — A village 2J m. S. W. from Holt. In the church is an 
old oak table ; also a monument, with effigies and shields of 
arms, to Sir William Butts, who died in 1583, and whose father 
was chief physician to Henry VIII. 

Thornham. — A coast village 5 m. E.N.E, from Hunstanton. The 
church has a fine timber roof and several old carved doors, and 

' contains a portion of a fifteenth century painted rood screen ; 
also a pulpit dated 1631. 

Thorpe (next Haddiscoe). — A village 2J m. S.W. from Haddiscoe 
station. 

Thorpe (next Norwich). — A village on the Yare, 2 m. E. from 
Norwich, with a station called Whitlingham junction. The old 
church is a picturesque ruin. Attached to the Old Hall or 
Manor House, which stands near the river, and which was 
formerly a country seat of the bishops of Norwich, are the 
remains of a chapel. 

Thorpe Abbotts. — A village on the Waveney, 4 J m. E. from 
Diss station. 

Thorpe Market. — A village x\ m. E. by N, from Gunton station. 

Thorpe Parva.— (See Scole). 

Threxton. —A parish 2 J m. W. from Watton station. The church 
roof and the splays of the arches are interesting ; also the carved 
oak screen, poppy -headed benches, and Jacobean desk and 
pulpit, 

Thrigby. — A parish 4 m. S.W. from Ormesby station. The Hall 
322 



Gazetteer 



grounds contain some fine old trees and a very ancient yew 
fence. 

Thurgarton. — A parish 5 m. W. from Gunton station. The Hall, 
which has been in the possession of the Spurrell family about 
350 years, was rebuilt in the Tudor style in 1733. 

Thurlton. — A village 4 m. W. from Haddiscoe station. The 
church contains a fine carved oak screen and some ancient 
monuments. 

Thurne. — A small village on the rivers Bure and Thurne, 4 m. W. 
from Martham station. One of the church bells is said to date 
from the fourteenth century. 

Thurning. — A scattered village 2 m. N. from Guestwick station. 

Thursford. — A village, with a station, 5 m. N.E. from Fakenham. 
The Hall, an Elizabethan house, is surrounded by a small but 
well-wooded park in which the church stands. 

Thurton. — A village 4 m. S.W. from Buckenham station. 

Thuxton. — A scattered parish, with a station, 5^ m. S. by E. from 
Dereham. The church contains three sixteenth century brasses. 

Thwaite All Saints. — A village 5 m. N. from Aylsham. 

Thwaite St Mary. — A village 4 m. N. from Bungay station. The 
church has a Norman doorway. 

Tibenham. — A village 2 m. W. from Tivetshall junction. The 
church has an embattled tower, with emblems of the Evangelists 
as pinnacles. It contains a Jacobean pulpit and a pew, erected 
by faculty granted by Archbishop Laud for the use of the Buxton 
family, to whom there are several brasses in an eastern chapel 
dedicated to St Nicholas. 

TiLNEY All Saints. — A village i m. from Clenchwarton station, 
and x\ m. S.W. from Terrington station. The church is a fine 
Transition Norman building, with a Perpendicular clerestory and 
double hammer-beam roof adorned with figures. It contains 
Perpendicular and Jacobean screens, and a late Perpendicular 
font ; also a grave slab said to be a memorial to the giant 
Hickathrift, a somewhat mythical personage who, according to 
tradition, armed himself with a cart axle-tree, and with a wheel 
for a buckler put to flight a body of invaders who attempted to 
gain possession of Tilney Smeeth, a tract of common land upon 
which the inhabitants of the district kept their sheep. 

TiLNEY St Law^rence. — A village 3 m. S. from Terrington station. 

TiTCHWELL. — A village on the coast road from Lynn to Wells, 5 J m. 
W. by N. from Burnham Market station. At the east end of the 
village is the shaft of a wayside cross. 

TiTTLESHALL-cuM-GoDWiCK. — A village 5 m. N. from Dunham 
station. The chureh contains some fine monuments to the Coke 



Norfolk 



family, including one with a life-size effigy to Sir Edward Coke, 
Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, who died in 1634 ; 
another to his wife with effigies of herself and eight children ; and 
a handsome monument to Sir Thomas Coke of Holkham, first 
Earl of Leicester of the Coke family, who died in 1759. The 
Hall, now a farmhouse, was built by Sir Edward Coke, who pre- 
sided over the trial of Sir Walter Rayleigh, and who was the great 
authority of his day on EngHsh law. 

TiVETSHALL St Margaret's. — A village, with junction station, 5J 
m. N, N. E. from Diss. The church nave has a carved oak roof, 
and is separated from the chancel by an Elizabethan screen. 

TiVETSHALL St Mary. — A village i\ m. from Tivetshall station. 

Toft Monks. — A village ij m. from Aldeby station. The church 
plate includes a silver chalice dated 1567. 

Toft, West. — A village 5 m. N.E. from Brandon station. The 
church contains two finely carved screens, 

TOFTREES. — A parish 2 m. S.W. from Fakenham, The church con- 
tains an interesting Norman font. 

ToPCROFT. — A scattered village 6 m. N.W. from Bungay station. 

TOTTENHILL. — A village 2 m. E. from Magdalen Road junction. 
Westbriggs is a hamlet included in this parish, because its old 
church is now Tottenhill parish church. 

TOTTINGTON, — A village 3I m. E. from Stow Bedon station. The 
church nave is seated throughout with old oak benches, and the 
windows are remarkable for their tracery. An old stone bearing 
the Mortimer arms has been placed on the wall of the south aisle. 
Here, too, is an ancient carved screen, and a good brass dated 
1598. 

Trimingham. — A small coast village, 3 m, N.E. from Gunton station, 
5 m. S.E. from Cromer, and adjoining Mundesley, which is con- 
nected with the Norwich and Cromer line by a branch line from 
North Walsham. It stands on the highest ground in Norfolk, 
the cliffs rising to the height of 300 feet, and commanding a 
magnificent view of the coast, and inland of a score or more 
churches. The beach, which extends to Cromer on one side 
and Mundesley on the other, affords delightful rambles and good 
and safe bathing. The church, a flint building in the Perpen- 
dicular style, contains a carved oak screen, and anciently pos- 
sessed a celebrated relic, venerated as the head of St John the 
Baptist. Some carving on the screen, which also bears figures of 
St Petronilla, the reputed daughter of St Peter ; St Clare, St 
Cecilia, St Dorothy, St Edmund, and St Edward, is supposed to 
represent something associated with the precious relic for which 
the church was formerly famous. Already Trimingham claims 
its share of the summer visitors to the Norfolk coast, and as 
accommodation is increasing here it promises soon to become a 



Ga%etteer 

popular seaside resort. A list of the places of interest in the 
neighbourhood will be found under " Cromer." 

Trowse Newton. — A village on the Yare, with a station i| m. S.E. 
by S. from Norwich. 

Trunch. — A village 2| m. E. from Gunton station. The church 
contains some fine woodwork and a richly carved open Perpen- 
dicular roof. The font is within a wooden baptistery. The 
chancel screen, which dates from 1502, has figures of the Apostles 
on its lower panels. 

TuDDENHAM, EAST. — A village 5 m. N.E. from Thuxton station. 
The church tower and porch are Norman, and the chancel con- 
tains a mutilated efiigy. One of the windows, representing scenes 
in the Life of Christ, was painted by the widow of the Very 
Rev. Edward Mellish, Dean of Hereford, a former rector, 

TuDDENHAM, NoRTH. — A scattered village extending from 2^ to 5 m. 
E. from Dereham. The church contains the lower part of an old 
carved oak screen painted with figures of saints. 

TuNSTALL. — A parish on the Bure, 2 m. S.E. from Acle station. 
The church is partly in ruins. 

TuNSTEAD. — A village 2^ m. N.E. from Wroxham station. The 
church contains a fine screen, and a loft on which, it is supposed, 
miracle plays were formerly performed. Some interesting iron- 
work remains on the south door. 

TUTTINGTON. — A village on the Ant, 2 m. E. from Aylsham. 

TwYFORD. — A parish i m. from Foulsham station. 

Upton. — A village 2 m. N. from Acle station. The church contains 
a rood screen painted with figures of St Augustine, St Jerome, 
St Gregory the Great, St Ambrose, St Etheldreda, St Helena, 
St Joanna of Valois, and St Agatha ; also a fine font. 

Upwell. — A large village, formerly a market town, partly in Cam- 
bridgeshire, 4 m. S. from Emneth station, and the terminus of a 
Wisbech tramway. On the chancel wall of the church of St Peter 
is a fine brass dated 1621, with kneeling figures of eight males 
and five females. Nordelph, a hamlet with a modern church, 
adjoins Upwell. 

Weybourne. — A coast village 4 m. N.E. from Holt station. Here 
are ruins of a Saxon church, adjoining which a priory was built 
in the Norman period. On the heath are a great number of 
prehistoric pits such as are referred to under ' ' Aylmerton. " 
Writing of them in " Norfolk Archaeology," Mr Harrod says: — 
' ' A ridge of stones having been firmly placed on the outer side of 
a circular excavation, the soil from the interior was thrown out, 
the circle of stones preventing it from falling again into the pit. 
At the bottom of each pit is a large quantity of stones, which 
may partly have served to line it. The diameter varies from 
8 to 20 ft., and the depth of each pit from 2 to 6 ft. The 



Norfolk 



main body of the pits is placed directly over a spring which, 
bursting forth at the foot of the rising ground, runs through the 
present village of Weybourne." 

Wacton. — A village i m. S.E. from Forncett junction. The church 
contains a brass, dated 1623, to John Knyvett de Ashvi^ouldthorpe. 

Walcott. — A coast village 4 m. N.E. from Honing station. The 
church contains a carved oak screen. 

Wallington-w^ith-Thorpland. — A parish 3 m. N. from Down- 
ham. Wallington church is in ruins ; Thorpland church has dis- 
appeared. The Hall is an old building standing in a park of 
about 150 acres. 

Walpole St Andrew. — A village, with a station i| m. away, 9 m. 
W. by S. from Lynn. The church, in the Early Perpendicular 
style, contains, in one of the tower buttresses, a curious cell, 
supposed to have been the abode of a hermit ; also a large Italian 
picture, brought from Italy by one of the Lords Coleraine. Not 
far from this parish King John lost his treasure and army 
baggage in attempting to cross the Wash. 

Walpole St Peter. — A large village 3 m. S. from Walpole station. 
Its church of St Peter, a very fine Perpendicular building, con- 
tains an ancient screen and some carved oak benches. The 
front of the book-boards in the chancel retains original painting ; 
the panels of the screen are also painted. The south doorway is 
richly carved. Into the outer wall is built the figure of a satyr, 
popularly known as Hickathrift (see Tilney All Saints). The 
"Roman Bank," a sea-wall built by the Romans, crosses the 
parish. The Walpole family, who in the thirteenth century 
settled at Houghton in Norfolk, where Sir Robert Walpole, the 
prime minister, was born, took their name from this parish. 

Walsham, North (p. 176). — A small market town standing on 
elevated ground between the rivers Ant and Bure, and having 
stations on the G. E. R. and M. and G. N. railways. It is 14I m. 
from Norwich. The church, a Perpendicular building, replaces 
one destroyed in 1381 during a local rebellion. Its tower, now in 
ruins, formerly had a spire which rose to the height of 147 feet. 
The church contains the lower part of an ancient rood screen, a 
good carved pulpit, a font with a tabernacle- work cover, and the 
tomb of Sir William Paston, the founder of the Grammar School. 
The Market Cross was built by Bishop Thirlby in the reign of 
Edward VI. ; it has been restored. A cross on a heath outside 
the town marks the site of a battle fought in 1381, when Bishop 
Spencer defeated the men whom John, a Norwich dyer, inspired 
by the acts of Wat Tyler, had persuaded to rebel against the 
authorities. Inns : King's Arms and Angel. 

Walsham, South. — This place, which is 3I m. N. from Lingwood 
station, consists of two parishes, viz. Walsham St Mary and 
Walsham St Lawrence. The churches of these parishes, stand in 
326 



Gazetteer 



the same churchyard. That of St Lawrence is partly in ruins in 
consequence of a fire which occurred in 1827. South Walsham 
Broad (p. 168) is in these parishes; and not far away, on the 
opposite bank of the Bure, are the ruins of St Benet's Abbey 
(p. 166-8). 

WALSINGHAM (pp. 94-95). — A union town, with a station, 5 m, 
S. E. by E. from Wells. The church, a fine cruciform building, 
contains a splendid alabaster monument, dated 1612, to Sir 
Henry Sidney and his wife. The font, now much mutilated, is 
described as one of the finest examples of Perpendicular fonts in 
England. Here are the ruins of the famous priory to which pil- 
grims came from all parts of Europe. The grounds of Walsing- 
ham Abbey, in which are the ruins, are thrown open to the public 
every Wednesday. Inn : Black Lion. 

WALSINGHAM, OLD. — A village I m. N,E. from Walsingham 
station. The church contains a pulpit dating from 1613 ; also 
some interesting carved seats and desks. The site of another 
church is traceable in a field not far from the existing church. 

Walsoken. — A parish and large village (of which a part is called 
New Walsoken) adjoining Wisbech, from which it is separated 
by a canal. The church, a large building in the Norman style 
with later portions, is one of the most interesting in the county. 
Both porch and chancel arch have rich Norman mouldings and 
the interior generally is remarkable for its varied mouldings. 
The font is ornamented by carved representations of the Sacra- 
ments of the Roman Church. Here, too, are some fine fifteenth 
century screens. 

Walton, East. — A village 2| m. N. from Narborough station. 

Walton, West. — A village i m. from Ferry station. The church 
is Early English with Perpendicular portions. Its bell-tower 
stands some 70 feet from the church and forms an entrance to the 
churchyard. The south porch is Transition Norman ; the west 
and north doorways are ornamented with carved work. The 
nave piers and the capitals and niches in the choir are particularly 
good. The font is interesting, and the church contains an eflSgfy 
of a prior of Ely. 

Warham All Saints. — A parish near the sea and 2 m. S. by E. 
from Wells. The church was formerly a much larger building, 
of which portions of a massive tower remain. It contains two 
brasses, one a curious one, dated 1474. 

Warham St Mary. — A village near the sea, adjoining Warham All 
Saints. There are remains here of a fortified camp with a triple 
fosse, covering about nine acres ; also of a large hall, once the 
seat of the Turners, a family whose vault is in a small chapel 
north of the church chancel. 

Waterden. — A parish 4 m. W. by S. from Walsingham station. 

327" 



Norfolk 

The existing church is a portion of a much larger building, of 
which there are other traces. 

Watlington. — A village on the Great Ouse, with a junction station 
called Magdalen Road. 

Watton. — A large village with a station lo m. S. from Dereham. 
The church is a flint building in the Norman and Gothic styles. 
Its chancel contains a leper's window, the font has an old oak 
cover ; and a curious old poor box is preserved bearing the date 
1552. Wayland Wood, on the south side of the village, is the 
reputed scene of the murder of " The Babes in the Wood " ; but 
the tradition probably originated from a carved mantel-shelf in 
an old house in the wood, on which the story was illustrated. 
The principal inns are the George, and Crown. 

Waxham. — A coast village 5 m. E. from Stalham station. The 
church is partly in ruins. Sea encroachments have considerably 
reduced the size of this place, which was formerly a large parish. 

Weasenham All Saints. — A village 3 m. S.E. from East Rud- 
ham station. The churchyard contains a fine monument to a 
parishioner who died in 1768. 

Weasenham St Peter. — A parish 2| m. S.E. from East Rudham 
station. 

Weeting-with-Bromehill, — A parish (in which is Brandon station) 
on the Little Ouse. There were formerly two churches here, but 
that of All Saints was demolished in the eighteenth century by 
the falling of the tower. Its ruins are in Weeting Park. The 
existing church is a small flint building in the Decorated style. 
The earthwork known as the " Devil's Dyke " borders this parish 
for about 3 miles, and an ancient vallum extends from the Ouse 
to Didlington. Here, too, are "Grimes' Graves." These are 
a large number of circular pits, pronounced to be prehistoric flint 
quarries (p. 55). Weeting Hall, the seat of the Angersteins, one 
of whom made the collection which formed the nucleus of the 
National Gallery, contains some valuable pictures, including Sir 
Joshua Reynold's " Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy." 

Welborne. — A village 3I m. N.N.E. from Hardingham station. 

Wellingham. — A parish 6 m. S.S.W. from Fakenham. 

WELLS (p. 94). — A small coast town with a station 10 m. N. from 
Fakenham and 32 m. N.W. from Norwich. Its church was 
almost entirely destroyed by a fire caused by lightning in 1879 1 
but has been rebuilt. It has a fine open roof, and retains some 
traces of early mural paintings. A doorway leading to the vestry 
is richly carved, and above it is a brass to a rector who died in 
1499. An old oak chest, dated 1635, is kept in the vestry. A 
promenade about a mile in length extends from the quay to the 
beach, where is a place of refreshment called the Beach House. 
A firm sandy beach offers good bathing facilities, and golf links 

328 



Gazetteer 



within f m. of the town are among the attractions of this quiet 
Httle seaport. It is a convenient centre from which tourists and 
visitors may make excursions to Holkham Hall (pp. 98-99), 
Walsingham Priory (pp. 94-95), Stiffkey (pp. 96-97), and 
Binhani Priory (pp. 95-96). The chief inns are the Crown, 
Globe, and Railway, and there is lodging-house accommodation. 

Welney. — A parish partly in Cambridgeshire. 

Wendling. — A village, with a station, 4 m. W. from Dereham. The 
ruins of an abbey founded here by Sir William de Wendling in 
the thirteenth century were used to repair the roads. 

Wereham. — A village i| m. N.W. from Stoke Ferry station. 

Westfield. — A parish i m. W. from Yaxham station and 2 m. S. 
from Dereham. 

Weston Longville. — A parish if m. S.E. from Lenwade station. 
The church contains some old stained glass, an ancient altar- 
stone, three stone sedilia, and an interesting rood screen dating 
from the fifteenth century. 

Westwick. — A scattered village i m, W. from Worstead station. 
The church contains a good screen. Westwick House, which 
stands in a pleasant park, was built in the reign of Queen Anne. 
Not far from the house is a look-out about 90 ft. high. 

Wheatacre All Saints. — A small village ij m. S.E. from Aldeby 
station. The church contains a carved screen and ancient font. 

Whinburgh. — A village i| m. S. from Yaxham station. 

Whissonsett. — A parish 5 m. S. from Fakenham. The church con- 
tains an ancient font and some interesting memorials. 

Whitlingham. — A parish on the Yare, 2 m. W. from Trowse 
station (Norwich). The tower of the ruined church is orna- 
mented with four statues. 

Whittington. — A village near Stoke Ferry station. 

WiCKHAMPTON. — A parish 2^ m. N. from Reedham junction. The 
church contains an altar-tomb with effigies to Sir William 
Gerbygge and his wife, who are supposed to have founded the 
church in the thirteenth century. Some fifteenth century paintings 
on the north wall of the nave represent an allegorical hunting scene, 
and over the north door is a figure of St Christopher carrying the 
infant Christ over a river ; also representations of the seven acts 
of mercy. The pulpit is Elizabethan. On the gable of the porch 
is a stone rood supported by figures of St Mary and St John. 

Wicklewood. — A village i m. S. from Kimberley station. The 
lower stage of the church tower forms a porch. On the first floor 
is a fireplace and small oven ; on the second floor another fire- 
place. The church contains an ancient but undated brass, and 
some well-carved bench heads. 



Norfolk 



WiCKMERE. — A village 5 m. N. from Aylsham. 

WiGGENHALL St GERMANS. — A village on the Ouse, 3 m. N.W. 
from Magdalen Road station, and 4 m. S. from Lynn, 

WiGGENHALL St Mary Magdalen. — A village on the west side of 
the Great Ouse, f m. W. from Magdalen Road station. The 
church, a Decorated building with Perpendicular additions, has 
a fine interior, and there is some good screen work at the east 
end of the aisles, the lower panels being painted with the symbols 
of the Evangelists. Crabb or Crabhouse Abbey was founded 
here in 1181. This is the abbey of which Dr Jessopp has written 
in his " Frivola." 

WiGGENHALL St Mary THE ViRGiN. — A parish 4 m. N.W. from 
Magdalen Road station. The church is of the Transition period 
from Decorated to Perpendicular, except the north and south 
doorways which are Early English. The rood screen was added 
in 1626. The benches in the south aisle are of finely carved 
oak ; the brass eagle in the nave dates from 1518. An alabaster 
altar-tomb in the nave has effigies of a man in armour, with his 
wife and child. St Mary's Hall, a mansion with portions of 
different periods, contains the gatehouse of an ancient manor 
house, probably the seat of the Kervile family, to whom there are 
memorials in the church. 

WiGGENHALL St Peter, — A parish 2 m. N.W. from Magdalen Road 
station. 

Wighton. — A village 2 m. N. from Walsingham station. The 
church, a large Perpendicular building, contains a well-preserved 
ancient font. The nave windows have stained glass centres 
representing the Apostles, St Paul, and St Barnabas. About 
i\ m. W. from the village, at a spot called Crabbe's Castle, are 
traces of ancient entrenchments. 

WiLBY. — A village i m. E. from Eccles Road station. The church 
has a Norman south porch, 

WiMBOTSHAM. — A village on the Ouse, i m. N, from Downham 
station. The church is Norman with Early English and later 
additions. Its north and south doorways are fine Norman work, 
and the nave ceiling has some good carved bosses. 

Winch, East, — A village, with a station, 5I m. S.E. by E. from 
Lynn. The church was thoroughly restored in 1875 under the 
direction of Sir Gilbert Scott, R.A., when an organ chamber was 
built on the site of the ancient mortuary chapel of the Howards, 
Dukes of Norfolk. A brass tablet on the east wall of the organ 
chamber records the interment, in 1309, of Sir William Howard, 
a judge, and ten other members of the Howard family. 

Winch, West. — A village 3 m. W. from Lynn. The church has a 
curious south porch, and on the tower are the arms of the 
Cholmondeley family, who are lords of the rnanor. 



Gazetteer 



WiNFARTHiNG. — A village 3 m. N.W. from Burston station. The 
church contains a sixteenth century oak chest. Formerly this 
place was renowned for possessing the "Good Sword of Win- 
farthing," which was kept in a chapel at the end of the south 
aisle, and was useful for the discovery of lost articles or animals, 
and the releasing of wives from husbands who were distasteful to 
them. The sword was said to have been left here by a thief who 
took sanctuary in the churchyard. On the Lodge Farm, which 
is a portion of a deer park enclosed in 1604 by the Earl of Arundel, 
is one of the largest oaks in England, measuring 70 feet round the 
roots and 40 feet round the middle of its main trunk. 

WiNGLAND, Central. — Most of this parish is in Lincolnshire. 

WiNTERTON. — A coast village i m. N. from Hemsby station. The 
church, which dates from the early part of the fourteenth century, 
has an embattled tower 127 feet high, with eight figures between 
the pinnacles. The south porch, which has a parvise, is very fine 
work. A lighthouse about 70 feet high stands on the high ground 
not far from the church. There is a fine beach, inland of which 
are wide stretches of sandhills. A good many visitors come 
here during the summer months, and more would be glad to 
do so if there were better accommodation for them. Comfort- 
able lodgings can only be obtained by arrangements made some 
time before they are wanted. 

WiTCHiNGHAM, GREAT. — A village ij m. N. from Lenwade station. 
The church contains a finely carved ancient font. Lenwade is a 
hamlet in this parish. 

WiTCHiNGHAM, LITTLE. — A parish i| m. N. by E. from Lenwade 
station. 

WiTTON (near North Walsham). — A parish 4 m. N.E. from North 
Walsham. The church contains some curious mural paintings, 
discovered in 1859. Two circular windows here are supposed to 
be Saxon. 

WiTTON (near Norwich). — A village 2 m. N. from Brundall station. 

WiVERTON. — A parish near the coast and J m. W. by S. from Cley. 
The church contains several interesting sixteenth century brasses ; 
the Hall some fine carved oak panelling. 

WoLFERTON (p. 103). — A coast village, with a station, 7 m. N. by E. 
from Lynn. The station is the alighting-place for Sandringham 
Hall, the seat of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. The church, 
which replaced in i486 an earlier structure of which there are 
some remains, is a fine building chiefly in the Decorated style, 
containing some good screens, those inclosing the south chapel 
being of exceedingly fine fourteenth century workmanship. The 
church was completely restored in 1886 at a cost of £6000, 
defrayed by the Prince of Wales, who also presented the stone 
pulpit. During the progress of the restoration some interesting 
mural decoration was discovered over the chancel arch, and has 



Norfolk 



been preserved. The parish is included in the Prince's Sandring- 
ham Estate, and from the heights between it and Sandringham 
some fine views may be obtained, Boston Church (Lincolnshire), 
being visible on clear days across the Wash. 

WoLTERTON. — A parish 3 m. N.E. from Corpusty station and 4 m. 
N. W. from Aylsham. The church has almost disappeared. Wol- 
terton Hall, built in 1736 for Horace, first Baron Walpole, brother 
of Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister, who lived at Houghton 
(pp. 129-32), formerly contained a fine collection of pictures, 
Horace Walpole described the house as one of the best of its 
size in England, adding " I am really charmed with Wolterton ; 
it is all wood and water." It is approached by a fine avenue of 
cedars, and contains a bust of Sir Robert Walpole by Rysbrach ; 
also a full-length portrait signed " Stef. Slaughter, 1742," and 
portraits of Sir Robert's father and mother and the Jesuit 
Walpole whose life-story has been written by Dr Jessopp. 

WooDBASTWiCK. — A Broadland village 2 J m. N.E. from Salhouse 
station. The Hall, completed in 1889, is a fine house in the 
Elizabethan style, containing some valuable pictures and art 
treasures. 

Wood Dalling.— A village 2| m. S.W. from Corpusty station. 
The church contains some memorial brasses and slabs to the 
Bulwer and Fleetwood families. The late Lord Dalling and 
Bulwer, diplomat and author, and ambassador to the Ottoman 
Porte 1858-65, took his title from this parish. 

Wood Norton. — A parish 2 m, S.W. from Hindolveston station. 

WooDRisiNG. — A village 5 m. W. from Hardingham station. The 
church, the tower of which is in ruins, contains an ancient monu- 
ment, with a recumbent figure in armour, supposed to represent 
Sir Robert Southwell, a former lord of the manor ; also a flat 
monument to Sir Francis Crane, Chancellor of the Order of the 
Garter, who died at Paris in 1636. The latter knight established 
a tapestry factory at Mortlake, in Surrey, where a great deal of 
excellent tapestry was made. 

WOODTON. — A village 4 m. N.W. from Ditchingham station. The 
church contains a marble effigy of Anne Suckling, who died in 
1653 ; also a renovated Norman font. 

WooTTON, North. — A village overlooking the Wash, with a station, 
3^ m. N. from Lynn. 

WooTTON, South.— A village i m. S. from North Wootton station. 
The church contains an altar-tomb to Sir James Windt, dated 
1601 ; also a Norman font. On the north side is a mausoleum of 
the Hamond family, described by an antiquary as "without 
exception, the ugliest piece of modern deformity that ever was 
appended to an old church," 

Wormegay.— A village 4 m. E. from Magdalen Road station. 



Gazetteer 



There are remains of an ancient cross on the village green. 
Formerly there was a castle of the Lords Bardolf here. It was 
demolished in 1408 by Henry IV. , but its site can still be traced. 

WORSTEAD (p. 175). — A village, with a station, 3 m. S. by E. from 
North Walsham. The church is one of the finest in the county, 
having been built during the time when Worstead was an im- 
portant centre of the woollen manufacture, carried on here by 
Flemish refugees. It dates from the fourteenth century, and is 
of Transitional character, having a Decorated tower and Per- 
pendicular nave. Originally it contained nine chapels, one of 
which has been restored in memory of the father of one of the 
rectors. Two double screens divide the chapels from the aisles ; 
and under the west tower is a gallery or rood-loft of very fine 
workmanship. The south porch, which has a parvise, is richly 
carved and groined. The font is Perpendicular, and has a good 
tabernacle cover. 

Worthing. — A village near North Elmham station. 

WoRTWELL. — A parish on the Waveney, i| m. E. from Harleston, 
and e.xtending to Homersfield station, 

Wramplingham. — A village 3I m. N. from Wymondham. 

Wreningham. — A scattered village 2k "^' E. from Wymondham, 
and adjoining Ashwellthorpe station. 

Wretham, East. — A parish, with a station, i m. from the church on 
the Thetford and Swaffham line. The church font has a lofty 
carved oak canopy ; the south doorway is Norman, and the east 
wall of the chancel is adorned with mural paintings. 

Wretham, West. — A parish 2 m. W. from Wretham station. The 
church is in ruins. In the park of 600 acres which surrounds the 
Hall are two meres known as Hill Mere and Mickle Mere. 
Formerly there were two larger meres in the neighbourhood — 
the Great Mere and West Wretham - Mere. Some interesting 
discoveries were made in 1851 and 1856 when these meres were 
drained (pp. 6-7). 

Wretton. — A village i m. W. from Stoke Ferry station. 

WROXHAM. — A well-known Broadland village on the Bure, with a 
station, 7 m. N.E. from Norwich. A large number of yachts, 
pleasure- wherries, and boats may be hired here for cruising in 
Broadland, Messrs R. Collins & Son and J. Loynes being the 
owners and builders of every kind of craft suited to the inland 
waters. Wroxham Broad, one of the loveliest of the broads, is 
about two miles from Wroxham Bridge (pp. 170-1). Both the 
broad and the river with which it is connected are well-known to 
anglers, who visit them in considerable numbers. The Broad 
fishing, however, is preserved, and a charge of 2s. 6d. a-day made 
to anglers. Cheap fishing tickets to Wroxham station are issued 
from Norwich, Whitlingham, Cromer, and Gunton stations every 

333 



Norfolk 



day during the summer months. Inns : Black Horse, Castle, 
Horse Shoes, and King's Head. 

WYMONDHAM (pp. 42-43). — A small market town with a 
station 9I m. S.W. by W. from Norwich and 11 m. S.E. from 
DerehamT The church, which is attached to the ruins of a priory 
founded by William d' Albini, chief butler to Henry I. is remark- 
able for possessing two (east and west) towers, one square, the 
other octagonal in its upper part. It is now believed that this is 
a double church. It contains some exceedingly fine and interest- 
ing Norman work, the central aisle of the nave having Norman 
piers and arches. The east tower is of earlier date than the 
west. The Grammar School is an interesting building, formerly 
known as St Thomas i-Becket's chapel. The market cross was 
built in 1616 and restored in 1863. The Old Green Dragon Inn 
is an ancient building, formerly connected with the priory. 
Near the church is a well (St Thomas a-Becket's) which used to 
be much resorted to by pilgrims. 

There are . some interesting old houses in the neighbour- 
hood. Stanfield Hall, a moated Tudor house, about 2 m. 
N.E. from the town, was at one time occupied by Sir John 
Robsart, father of that ill-fated Amy Robsart, who became 
the wife of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and died so 
mysteriously at Cumnor Hall. Robert Dudley is supposed to 
have first met his future wife here. Since 1848 the house has 
had a gruesome interest through having been in that year the 
scene of the sensational murder of Mr Jermy, the Recorder 
of Norwich, and his son, who were shot by Blomfield Rush 
(pp. 43-45). Burfield Hall, about 2 m. S. along the London 
Road, was built in 1709, and contains a fine entrance hall 
and old oak staircase, Gunvil Hall, an Elizabethan house, 
once surrounded by a moat, is now a farmhouse. 

Robert Kett, who raised an insurrection in Norfolk in the 
reign of Edward VI., was a Wymondham tanner (p. 18). He 
was hung from the walls of Norwich Castle, his brother meeting 
with a like fate on Wymondham Church tower. Inns : King's 
Head, and Railway. 

Yarmouth (pp. 50-67). — The great popular seaside resort of Nor- 
folk and the East Anghan coast. It stands at the mouth of 
the river Yare, on the border of Suffolk, and is 20 m. E. by 
S. from Norwich, 9 m. N. from Lowestoft, and 123 m. by road 
from London. Among Norfolk towns it ranks next in size and 
population to Norwich, which is the largest and most populous. 
It is connected with the Great Eastern main line by a branch to 
Norwich ; but the most direct route from London to Yarmouth 
is via Ipswich and the East Suffolk line. The G.E.R. has two 
stations here, Southtown, the terminus of the line from London 
via Ipswich ; and Vauxhall, the terminus of the Norwich branch 
hne. A third station, known as the "Beach," is that of the Mid- 
land and Great Northern Joint Railway. There is a largely 

334 



Gazetteer 



patronised steamship service between London and Yarmouth 
during the summer months. 

Although tourists with quiet tastes will probably avoid Yar- 
mouth, or at most, pay it a few hours' visit, for the purpose of 
seeing its great church of St Nicholas, the largest parish church 
in England, Yarmouth all through the summer is thronged 
with visitors, many of them excursionists, for whom almost every 
description of popular entertainment is provided. A considerable 
portion of the sea front is laid out as pleasure gardens, where 
military bands play frequently ; there are two piers, on one of 
which, the Britannia, popular concerts are given morning and 
evening. Other concert parties give daily entertainments on the 
beach, from which a large number of pleasure boats are launched 
when weather permits, and where there is abundant accom- 
modation for bathers. The Royal Aquarium is now a theatre, 
standing at the north end of the Marine Drive. The Theatre 
Royal adjoins Regent Road. During the season dances are held 
every evening at Winton's Assembly Rooms on the Drive. The 
local golf club has an i8-hole course among the sandhills north 
of the town, the entire circuit being about three miles. Tennis 
courts are laid out close to the beach, where there is also an 
excellent recreation ground. There is a Free Library at the 
Old Tolhouse in Middlegate Street and a Public Library and 
Reading Room on the South Quay. 

St Nicholas\ the parish church, was founded by Herbert de 
Lozinga, Bishop of Norwich from 1091 to 11 19, who also 
founded Norwich Cathedral. It is doubtful if any portion of the 
original building now remains. The present church is a cruci- 
form structure in the Early English, Decorated, and Perpen- 
dicular styles, consisting of nave and chancel (both aisled), 
transept, and central tower. The nave is chiefly Transition 
Norman, the nave aisles, which are wider than the nave, are 
Decorated additions. The church's extreme length is 236 feet, 
and its breadth 112 feet, giving it a floor space of 23,265 feet. 
It possesses few monuments, and all its brasses were, in 1551, cast 
into weights for the local tradesfolk. In the wall of the south 
aisle is the Fastolff tomb, which has been restored ; in the north 
aisle is a canopied tomb, known as the ' ' Prior's," and in the north 
chancel aisle is a canopied slab, which may be either a tomb or 
an Easter Sepulchre. Near by is the dilapidated canopy of the 
altar tomb of Thomas Crowmer, who was bailiff of Yarmouth 
seven times between 1470 and 1497. This tomb was despoiled of 
its sculptured shields in 1650, when a large vestry was erected in 
the north chancel. At the west end of the north nave aisle is a 
stained glass window erected to the memory of Sarah Martin, 
who did such good work among the prisoners in Yarmouth jail. 
A seat inside the west door is made of a portion of the skeleton 
of a whale, and is known as the Devil's Seat. The church pos- 
sesses a Cranmer's Bible, a Roman missal dated 1547, and a 
MS. scroll of the Book of Esther. 

Close by the church, in the large market place, is the quaint and 

335 



Norfolk 



picturesque Fishermen' s Almshouse or hospital, erected by the 
Corporation in 1701. It encloses a courtyard containing a figure 
of Charity. An arched door on the east side of the yard is sur- 
mounted by a cupola containing a figure of St Peter. In the 
immediate neighbourhood of this almshouse are the restored 
remains of Yarmouth Priory, founded early in the twelfth cen- 
tury. They now form part of a schoolhouse. Apart from what 
is left of this priory, there are few monastic remains in the town ; 
but at the bottom of one of the " rows," which bears the name of 
Grey Friars' Cloisters, is an old arch which belonged to a religious 
house ; and not far away, on the opposite side of Middlegate 
Street, is another arch which may have formed part of the same 
building. 

One of the town's most interesting buildings is the Old Toll- 
house, in Middlegate Street, which is one of the few English 
municipal buildings dating from the thirteenth century. Although 
restored and converted into a free library and small museum, it 
retains its antique character. For a long time it was used as a 
jail, and it was here that Sarah Martin, the Caister seamstress, 
came to labour among the prisoners. Various local antiquities 
and curiosities are preserved in the portion which was used as a 
prison, and the cells are very interesting. 

There are several ancient houses well worth notice. On the 
South Quay, which provides one of the most interesting walks 
in the town, is a fine old building faced with flints and with 
picturesque gables and dormers. On the Hall Quay, in front of 
the Town Hall, are two other flint-faced houses, the Duke's Head 
and Star Hotels. The former bears the date 1601 ; the latter, in 
which Lord Nelson may have stayed when he visited Yarmouth, 
was built by William Crowe, a merchant who was town bailiff 
in 1594. The hall, now used as a bar, has a richly decorated 
ceiling. Another room, on the first floor, known as the Nelson 
Room, is lined with carved panelling, and above its fire-place is a 
panel bearing the arms of the Spanish Merchants, who were in- 
corporated by Queen Elizabeth. A son of the builder of this fine 
old house bought Caister Castle (pp. 78-80) from Sir William 
Paston in 1659 and made it his country residence. Several other 
quaint old buildings are to be seen in Middlegate Street and the 
numerous narrow "rows" which are such a conspicuous feature 
of the town. Of the town's old fortifications the most striking 
remains are King Henry's Tower in St Nicholas' churchyard and 
the Friars' Tower in Blackfriars Street. 

On the South Denes stands the Nelson Column, the first stone 
of which was laid in 18 17. This striking memorial of the famous 
admiral is thus described by Nail, the Yarmouth historian : "The 
pillar is of the Grecian Doric order, and beautifully fluted ; upon 
the plinth are the names of the different ships on board which the 
gallant admiral's flag was so valorously displayed, and the coping 
of the terrace beneath is inscribed in a similar manner with the 
titles of his most celebrated battles. On each side of the pedestal 
is a flight of steps to the terrace, which affords a promenade 



Gazetteer 



round the shaft. The roof is supported by caryatides, surmounted 
by a ball and figure of Britannia, holding in her hand a trident 
and laurel wreath." (The figure was struck by lightning in i860, 
and the left hand and trident broken off. ) On the west side of 
the pedestal is a Latin inscription from the pen of Mr Sergeant 
Frere, of which the following is a translation : — 

HORATIO, LORD NELSON, 

Whom, as her foremost champion in naval fight, 

Britannia, 

Living, — with devotion and honours, 

Dying, — followed after, with her lamentations, 

of whom, renowned in all lands for his triumphs, 

of whose firmness in counsel, of the undaunted ardour of whose courage, 

the whole world stood in awe. 

This Nelson, — Norfolk, 

her own by birth, by honourable lineage, by early training, 

her own in genius, in character, proudly claims. 

The future fame of such a name 

outlasting brass or stone, 

his fellow-citizens of Norfolk, at their mutual cost, 

by upreared column have sought to commemorate. 

Born, 1758 ; 

Appeared in arms, 1771 ; 

In near one hundred and fifty engagements with enemies. 

As victor waged war. 

Memorably at Aboukir, August, 1798 ; 

Copenhagen, April, 1801 ; 

Trafalgar, October, 1805 ; 

Which crowning act of so many splendid achievements 

he consecrated by a death 
Mournful to his country, sweet and glorious to himself. 

The chief places of interest in the neighbourhood of Yarmouth 
are : — 

Burgh Castle (pp. 182-3). 

Breydon (pp. 68-76). 

Caister Castle (pp. 78-80). 

Ormesby, RoUesby, and Filby Broads. 

Fritton Lake (p. 184). 

Soraerleyton Hall (Suffolk). 

Lowestoft (Suffolk). 

Fishing Tickets. — Cheap fishing tickets are issued daily from April ist 
to October 31st to Acle, Brundall, Buckenham, Cantley, Reed- 
ham, St Olaves (for Fritton Lake), and Somerleyton. 

Circular Trips into Broadland. — During the summer months cheap 
rail and boat tickets, available for trips taken partly by rail and 

Y 337 



Norfolk 



partly by saloon steamboats on the rivers Bure and Yare, are 
issued every w^eek-day at Yarmouth. Particulars of these trips 
will be found on handbills to be obtained at the G. E. R. stations. 
Saloon steamers often make river trips to Oulton Broad and 
Lowestoft by way of Breydon Water and the Waveney ; and 
other pleasure steamers ply daily by sea between Yarmouth and 
Lowestoft. 

Road Excursio7ts. — Every day during the season brakes and char-a- 
bancs run from the Marine Drive to Lowestoft, Ormesby Broad, 
Caister, and Fritton Lake ; and on one day in the week, when the 
grounds are thrown open to the public, to Somerleyton Hall. 

Other Excursions. — On certain days cheap rail excursions may be 
made to Norwich, Cromer, Mundesley, Hunstanton, and San- 
dringham. 

Accommodation for Visitors. — There is accommodation in the town 
for many thousand visitors, whole streets in some quarters con- 
sisting of little else but lodging houses. The principal hotels are 
the Bath Hotel, Marine Parade ; Brunswick (Temperance), King 
Street ; Cromwell (Temperance), Hall Quay ; Crown and Anchor, 
Hall Quay ; Duke's Head, Hall Quay ; Garibaldi ; Holkham, 
Marine Parade ; Marine, Marine Parade ; Norfolk, Marine 
Parade ; Queen's, Marine Parade ; Royal, Marine Parade ; Star 
and Garter, Hall Quay ; Victoria, Marine Parade. 

At Gorleston, which adjoins Yarmouth : — Anchor of Hope, 
Cliff, and Tramway hotels. 

The principal boarding-houses are : — Felixstowe House, Marine 
Parade ; Marine View, Marine Parade ; Metropolitan, Marine 
Parade ; Pier View House, Regent Road ; Redenhall House, 
Marine Parade ; Sandringham House, Marine Parade ; Sea 
View House, Marine Parade ; Talavera House, Princes Road ; 
Trafalgar House, Marine Parade. 

At Gorleston : Belle Vue House ; Gorleston House Hotel and 
Boarding House ; Highfield, Belle Vue Road. 

Yaxham. — A village, with a station," 2 m. S. from Dereham. The 
church is chiefly Decorated, with Perpendicular additions ; but 
the tower and tower arch are of Early Norman date. The font 
is a very fine one, and has been reproduced in Cromer church. 

Yelverton. — A village 5 m. S.E. from Norwich. The church con- 
tains a fine mural monument, dated 1661, and a stone floor slab 
with brass, dated 1525, also an ancient carved oak rood screen, 
and an interesting font. 



NORFOLK GOLF LINKS. 

Royal Norwich Golf Club. — The Links are at Rabbit's Hill, 
Hellesdon, where there is a full i8-hole course over undulating 
country with good natural bunkers of disused quarries and gravel 



Gazetteer 

pits. Mr Balfour pronounced it the finest inland course he had 
ever played on. 

Royal Cromer Golf Club. — The links, which have an i8-hole 
course, are on the Lighthouse Hills, | m. E. from Cromer. They 
were designed by Tom Morris, and command fine views of the 
"beauty spot of Norfolk." 

Sheringham Golf Club. — The links are on cliffs which rise 200 feet 
above the sea. 

Hunstanton Golf Club. — This club has a course of 18 holes on 
the marram-hills beyond Old Hunstanton, the hazards being sand 
bunkers, marshy ground, and rushes. 

Yarmouth Golf Club. — The links have an i8-hole course on the 
furze-grown sandhills north of the town. It extends for over a 
mile along the coast, the circuit being about three miles. The 
hazards are sand bunkers and whins. 

Royal West Norfolk Golf Club.— The i8-hole course is on a 
common near Brancaster Beach. Hunstanton and Burnham 
Market are the most convenient stations. 



BROADLAND YACHTING CENTRES. 

Yachts, launches, wherries, etc., for Broadland cruising may be 
hired at : — 

Wroxham . . J. Loynes. 

R. ColUns & Son. 

H. Press. 
Oulion . . . J. E. BuUen. 

R. Kemp & Co. 

J. Gooch. 

R. Barber. 
Yarmouth . . A. R. Brown, Cobholm, and at St Olaves. 
Norwich . . .J. Hart & Son, Thorpe Village. 

G. Hazell, Thorpe St Andrew. 

C. Wright, King Street. 
Lowestoft . . . Chambers and Colby. 

Titcomb & Few. 
North Walsham . Press and Pallett. 
Brundall . . H. Little & Co. 

Coltishall . . J. Allen. 
Ludham . . . W. Lake. 
Potter Heigham . G. Applegate. 
Reedham . . . G. Grimsell. 

C. J. Mutten. 
Stalham . . • ]• Teasel. 

Visitors intending to cruise in Broadland will generally do well to 
see yachts, wherries, etc., before hiring them, unless they have friends 

339 



Norfolk 



in the district who will do this for them. They may thus save them- 
selves discomfort and disappointment. Some cruising parties are 
more content to "rough' it" than others; and yacht-letters, unless 
supplied with very full information, cannot be expected to know just 
what will meet each party's requirements. 

RAILWAY TICKETS AT REDUCED FARES. 
Tourist Tickets. 

Tourist Tickets (ist and 3rd class) are issued at all the principal 
G.E.R. stations for all trains to Yarmouth, Cromer, Mundesley, and 
Hunstanton. If issued on any date from ist May to 31st October 
inclusive, they are available for return by any advertised train on any 
day up to and including 31st December. If issued on any date from 
1st November to 30th April inclusive, they are available for return 
by any train on any date within two calendar months from the date 
of issue. 

Tickets issued to Yarmouth are also available to or from Beccles, 
Reedham, St Olaves, Acle, Lowestoft, Cromer, and Mundesley. 

Tickets issued to Cromer are also available to or from North 
Walsham, Gunton, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, and Mundesley. 

Tickets issued to Mundesley are also available to or from Paston 
and Knapton, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, and Cromer. 

Tickets issued to Hunstanton are also available to or from 
Heacham. 

Passengers to Yarmouth, Cromer, and Mundesley are permitted to 
break their journey at Waltham Cross, Cambridge, Ely, and 
Norwich, or at Colchester and Ipswich, according to the route by 
which they are travelling. 

Tourist Tickets to Norwich are issued from Peterborough, 
Wisbech, Godmanchester, Postland, Spalding, Donington Road, 
Sleaford, Blankney and Metheringham, Lincoln, Gainsborough, 
Haxey, Selby, and York. 

Full details of these and the following issues may be obtained at 
Liverpool Street station. 

FORTNIGHTLY RETURN TICKETS. 

Fortnightly Return Tickets (ist and 3rd class) are issued at all 
G.E.R. stations for all trains running to Yarmouth, Cromer, Mundes- 
ley, and Hunstanton. 

Similar privileges are extended to holders of these tickets as to those 
who purchase tourist tickets. 

FRIDAY TO TUESDAY RETURN TICKETS. 

Every Friday and Saturday ist and 3rd class Return Tickets are 
issued at all G.E.R. stations for all trains running to Yarmouth, 



Gazetteer 



Cromer, Mundesley, and Hunstanton. They are available for return 
by any advertised train on the Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday following 
the date of issue. 

Similar privileges are extended to holders of these tickets as to those 
v/ho purchase Tourist Tickets. 

ELEVEN-DAY TICKETS. 

Eleven-Day Tickets are issued to Yarmouth, Cromer, Mundesley, 
and Hunstanton from York, Selby, Doncaster, Haxey, Gainsborough, 
Lincoln, Blankney and Metheringham, Sleaford, Donington Road, 
Spalding, and Postland. 

CHEAP TICKETS TO BROADLAND STATIONS. 

Tourist, Fortnightly, and Friday to Tuesday tickets are issued 
from Liverpool Street and St Pancras stations to Norwich, Wroxham, 
Acle, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Oulton Broad, and Carlton Colville. 

CIRCULAR TOUR TICKETS. 

To enable tourists to visit the various places of interest in Norfolk 
and the other East Anglian counties, Circular Tour Tickets, made up 
to include such towns and districts as may be most convenient to the 
purchaser, are issued at the G.E.R. Company's West End Ticket and 
Enquiry Office and American Rendezvous, 2 Cockspur Street, 
Trafalgar Square, and at Liverpool Street Station, 

BROADLAND ANGLING STATIONS. 

Brundall (for Surlingham and Coldham Hall). 

Buckenham (for Rockland Broad and Buckenham Ferry). 

Cantley. 

Reedham. 

Acle. 

Wroxham. 

Coltishall. 

Potter Heigham. 

Stalham (for Barton Broad). 

Ormesby (for Ormesby, Filby, and RoUesby Broads). 

St Olaves ) 

Haddiscoe V for Fritton Lake. 

Herringfleet j 

Oulton Broad ) r /~v i^ t^ j 

Carlton Colville \ ^""^ ^'^^^^^ ^'"^^d- 

From April ist to October 31st inclusive cheap excursion tickets are 
issued daily, available for return by any train on the day of issue 
only, the return fares being as follows : — 



Norfolk 



>, 


o 


'^' . 






















O 


V 


TS 


I 












* 








• 








<-5 






















H 




























^u 


U 


"^ . 
























^ 


•fi 

HI 


t-i 














• 












O 


'^" . 










00 










O 


o 


>-i 


13 
















; 


; 


; 






2l 


l-i 


<-5 










o 










H 


H 




























'-d 


H 






: 




: 


fO 

M 










00 

M 


00 

H 







"^' . 






















o 


s§ 


^3 

CO 


"i 








• 






• 


• 




• 


H 


2| 




























, 




























o 

tf! 

H 


<-5 






• 


: 






: 


: 






00 

H 


13 


U 


'«' . 


o 


o 


o 


a\ 






o 


ON 








o 


TS 




















: 


; 


; 


^« 


ro 


■o 


H 


M 


H 


o 






H 


o 








,^ c 




























[i| o 


o 


"^" 


CO 


00 


00 


vo 






00 


\o 






, 






























3 




























. O 




<-) 


H 


H 


M 


H 






1-1 


H 








o S 


-a 

CO 




o 

H 


o 


o 

H 


ON 
O 


: 




o 


ON 

o 


ON 

o 


: 




^ o 


u 


'^' . 


00 


00 


00 


VO 


:' 


; 


00 


^o 


vo 




: 




w. 

H 


'O 


H 


M 


H 


M 






H 


H 


H 











^i o 


o 


o 


o 








o 


ON 


o 






S3 


13 


-; o 


H 


H 


H 








H 


o 


w 






o o 

-1 




























D 


•>ivO 


00 


00 


00 








00 


NO 


00 






>H 
















: 
















<o- 1- 


H 


M 


H 








H 


H 








o.S 

^=5 


v 


-^•o 


00 


o 


o 


fO 


o 


o 


o 




vo 


o 


ON 


tr) 


^ o 


o 


H 


H 


H 


H 


CJ 


H 




H 


w 


o 




























1 S;C 


o 


"^'^ 


CO 


00 


00 


^0 


00 


o 


00 




o 


00 


vo 


: 2^ 




















; 










^ ^ 


M 


M 


H 


W 


H 


"* 


w 




CO 


H 


H 
















s 

•g 

1 






_,_^ 








' o 




' 


"ri 




b-. 


o 
o 


T3 

a 
o 

m 

o 


s 


^9 


o 

& 


X5 

C5i 


ri 

2 


1 




(U 


3 








o 


-a 

0) 


05 tJ 


a; 

S 


O 








S-i 

CQ 


3 

CQ 


03 


M 


o 


Pi 


o 

C/3 


^ 


^ 



34:2 



INDEX. 



Abbeys : — 
St Benet's, 166-8 ; Crabhouse, 118 ; 

Langley, 159; Thetford, 50; 

Walsingham, 94-95 ; Wymond- 

ham, 42. 
Acle, 58, 165-6. 
Acre, Castle, 127-8. 
Acre, West, 128. 
Aldeby Priory, 188, 
Alfred the Great, 17. 
Angling Resorts, 232. 

,, Tickets, 341. 
Anna, King of the East Angles, 8. 
Ant, River, 173-6. 
Antiquities, Fitch Collection of, 28. 
Aram, Eugene, 114. 
" Arcady," Dr Jessopp's, 11. 
Attleborough, 47. 

Aylmerton " Shrieking Pits," 88-89. 
Aylsham, 134-5, i/i- 

Babingley, 108. 

Bacton, 82. 

Badger-baiting, 14. 

" Bailiffs Daughter of Islington," 

1x8. 
Barrows, 6. 
Barton Broad, 173. 
Beach Companies, 63-64. 
Beachmen and their Work, 63-64. 
Bearded Titmice, 178-9. 
Beccles, 188. 
Beeston Priory, 89. 
Bigod, Hugh, 8, 17, 26. 

_,, Roger, 8, 17. 
Bigod's Tower, 26. 
Bilney, West, 129. 
Binham Priory, 95-96. 
Bird Life in Norfolk, 191-8 
Birds, Rare, 27. 
Bishop Hall's Palace, 121. 
Bishop's Bridge, 31. 
Blakeney, 93. 
Blickling, 133-41 ; church, 141 ; ghosts, 

133, 140 ; Hall, 133, 135-40; Library, 

^T39- 

Boadicea, 7. 

Boleyn, Anne, 133, 136-9 



Booth, Mr E. T., 71. 

Borrow, George, 13, 16, 31, 32, 35, 
124, 185. 

Botany in Norfolk, 199-206. 

Bramerton Wood's End, 153. 

Brancaster, 100. 

Brandon, 54-56. 

,, Flint-knapping at, 55-56 

Branodonum, 100. 

Breaches, Sea, 81-82. 

Breckland, 56. 

Breydoner, A typical, 75-76. 

Breydon Water, 68-76, 161, 162. 
,, Gunning on, 76. 
,, Wild-life on, 68-76. 

Broadland, General description of, 
142-9. 
,, Angling Resorts m, 341. 

Broads : — 

Barton, 173 ; Filby, 165 ; Hickling, 
180; Horsey Mere, 180 ; Hoveton 
Great, 170 ; Hoveton Little, 170 ; 
Ormesby, 80; Oulton, 185 ; Ran - 
worth, 168; Rockland, 158; 
Rollesby, 165 ; Salhouse, 170 : 
Somerton, 181 ; South Walsham, 
168 ; Stalham, 174 ; Surlingham, 
153 > Womack, 177 ; Woodbast- 
wick, 170 ; Wroxham, 170-1 

Broadsman at Home, 147-8. 

Bromholm Priory, 83. 

Browne, Sir Thomas, 19, 24, 34-5, 

1341 154- 
Brundall, 153. 
Buckenham, Old, 47. 
Bungay, 189. 
Bure, River, 162-72. 
Burgh Castle, 39, 182-3. 
Burgh St Peter, 187. 
Burnhams, Seven, 100. 
Burnham Thorpe, 100. 
Bustards, 27. 
Buxton, Sir T. Fowell, 9, 86. 

Caister Castle, 78-80. 
Caistor Camp, 28, 39-40. 
Caistor St Edmunds, 38-40. 
Caius, Dr, 35. 

343 



Norfolk 



Camping-matches, 13. 
Canute, 17, 50. 
Castles : — 

Bungay, 189 ; Caister, 78-80; Castle 

Acre, 127-8 ; Rising, 109-10 ; 

Norwich, 26-29. 
Castle Hill, Norwich, 30. 
,, Thetford, 50. 

Celtic Ox, 7. 
Chet, River, 159. 
Cimmerii, 6. 

" City of Churches," 2, 16. 
Civil Wars, 9, 18. 
Cley, 92-93. 
Cock-fighting, 13. 
"Coke of Norfolk," 98. 
Colman, J. J., 28. 
Cooper, Sir Astley, 61. 
Corbet, Miles, 67. 
Costessey, 121-3. 
Cotman, John Sell, 9, 28. 
Cowper, 83, 123. 
Crabhouse Abbey, 118. 
"Crome, Old," 9, 24, 28, 32, 35. 
Cromer, 85-90. 
Cycling in Norfolk, 243-50. 

D'albini, William, 42, 109. 

Danes, 8, 17. 

Decoying, Wild-fowl, 153-8. 

Defoe, Daniel, 2, 66, 155. 

Dereham, East, 123-6 ; Cowper's 
Tomb, 123 ; Borrow at, 124 ; Bell 
Tower, 124; St Withburga's 
Tomb, 125. 

Dersingham, 108. 

Dickens at Yarmouth, 60. 

Diss, 47. 

Ditchingham, 189. 

Dussyn's Dale, 18. 

East Barsham Manor-house, 95. 

Edmund, King, 8. 

Eels and Eel-catching, 163-5. 

Elmham, 129. 

Entomology in Norfolk, 207-14. 

Erpingham Gate, 22. 

,, Sir Thomas, 22. 

Ethelbert Gate, 23. 
Eugene Aram, 114. 
Euskarians, 6. 
Evelyn at Norwich, 34-3S» 

Fastolff, Sir John, 79, 137. 
Felix of Burgundy, 108. 
Fenland, 4, 112. 

"Fenland," Miller and Skertchley's, 
4- 

344 



Fenn, Sir John, 35, 83. 
Fens, Draining of the, 112. 
Filby Broad, 165. 
Fishing Tickets, 341. 

,, in Norfolk, 232-9. 
Fitch Collection of Antiquities, 28. 
Fitz Osborn, Wm., 26. 
Flint-knapping, 55, 56. 
Flint Weapons, 6, 55, 56. 
Forest Bed, 5. 

Fritton Lake, 153, 156-7, 184-5. 
Fry, Elizabeth, 9, 35. 

Games, Rural, 13-14. 
Gariononutn, 182. 
Gazetteer, 255. 
Geology, 5, 28, 215-25. 
Gipsies, 12, 13, 31-32. 
Golf Links, 33S. 
Gresham, 89. 

Greyfriars Tower, Lynn, 114. 
Grimes' Graves, 55. 
Guader, Ralph de, 8, 17. 
Guildhall, Lynn, 115. 

„ Norwich, 33-34. 

,, Thetford, 51. 
Gunflints, Manufacture of, 55-56. 
Gurney, J. H., 27. 
n J- J-, 35- 

Hall, Bishop, 21, 121. 
Happisburgh, 82. 
Hardley Cross, 159. 
Heacham, loi. 
Heigham Sounds, 178-80. 
Herringfleet, 185. 
Hethersett, 41. 
Hickathrift, 118. 
Hickling Broad, 180. 
Holkham Hall, 98. 
Holt, 93. 

Horning Ferry, 169-70. 
Horsey Gap, 81. 

,, Mere, iSo. 
Houghton Hall, 129-32. 
,, Pictures, 130. 
Hoveton Great and Little Broads, 

170. 
Howard, Henry, Earl of -Surrey, 

35. 

Iberians, 6. 

Iceni, 7, 39, 68, 89, 182. 

Ingham, 174. 

Ingoldisthorpe Hall, 108. 

Invincible, Loss of H. M.S., 65. 

Irstead, 173. 

Isabella, Queen, no. 



Index 



" Islington, Bailiffs Daughter of," 

ii8. 
Itinerarium Anglice, lo. 



Jasper Petulengro, 2. 
Jermy, Murder of Mr Isaac, 43-45. 
" Jerningham Letters," 121-3. 
Jessopp, Dr, 2, 11, 118. 



Kenninghall, 47. 

Keswick, 40. 

Kett, Rebellion, 9, 18. 

Kett, Robert and William, 18. 

Kimberley, 46. 

King's Lynn, 111-17 : — 
Braunche and Walsoken brasses, 
114 ; Custom House, 116 ; Eugene 
Aram at, 114 ; Greyfriars Tower, 
114 ; Guildhall, 115 ; " King 
John's Cup," 115 ; Origin of, 
112 ; Red Mount Chapel, 113 ; 
"Red Register," 115; South 
Gate, 113 ; St Margaret's Church, 
114 ; St Nicholas' Church, 115. 

Lake-dwellings, 6. 

Langley Abbey, 159. 

" Lavengro," 32. 

L'Estrange, Sir Roger, loi. 

Links, Golf, 338. 

Loddon, 159-60. 

Lost Towns and Villages, 5, 88. 

Lothbrock, Legend of, 161. 

Lothing, Lake, 186. 

Louis of France, 8, 17. 

Lowestoft, 185. 

Lozinga, Herbert de, 20, 61. 

Lozinga's Tomb, 21. 

Ludham, 177. 

Macaulay's Description of Norwich, 

Maid's Head Inn, Norwich, 35-36. 

Manby, Captain G. W., 65. 

Marryat, Captain, 93. 

Martham, 81. 

Martin, Sarah, 59. 

Martineau, Harnett, 35. 

Marshes, 58, 73, 90. 

Marshland churches, 1 18-19. 

"Marshland Shales," 31. 

Mautby, 74. 

Mousehold Heath, 18, 31, 32-33- 

Mowbray, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, 

79. 
Muck Fleet, 165. 



Mundesley, 86. 
Museum, Norwich, 27-28. 



Nelson, 9, 34, 59, 100. 
New Cut, The, 189-90. 
Newton, West, 108. 
Norfolk :— 

Botany, 199-206. 

Bird Life, 191-8. 

Churches, g. 

Cycling in, 10, 243-50. 

Dimensions of, 4. 

Early Inhabitants of, 6. 

Entomology, 207-14. 

Fishing, 232-9. 

General Description of, 1-15. 

Geology, 215-25. 

Gipsies, 12. 

Golf Links, 338. 

Natural Features of, 4. 

People, II. 

Population of, 4. 

Rivers, 11. 

Roads, 10. 

Scenery, 14. 

Sea Fishing, 240-2. 

Shooting, 226-32. 

Travelling in, 10. 

Wild-life, 13, 68-76, 90-92, 98-99, 
109, 143-48, 178-79. 
" Norfolk Gridiron," 60. 
Northampton, Marquis of, 18. 
Norwich, 16-36 : — 

Borrow on, 16 ; Bishop's Bridge, 31 ; 

Bishop's Palace, 23 ; Castle, 26- 

29 ; Cathedral, 20-22 ; Churches, 

24-25 ; Erpingham Gate, 22 ; 

Ethelbert Gate, 23 ; Evelyn at, 

34-35 '■> Grammar School, 23 ; 

Guildhall, 33-34; In the Seven- 
teenth Century, 19 ; Mousehold 

Heath, 18, 31-33 ; Museum, 27- 

28 ; St Andrew's Hall, 23 ; St 

Martin's Gate, 23. 

Oak of Reformation, 18. 
Ormesby Broad, 80. 
Ormesby, Great and Little, 80. 
Oulton Broad, 185. 

„ Dyke, 185, 187. 
Overstrand, 86. 
Oxnead Hall, 140, 141. 

,, John of, 81. 

Paine, Thomas, 52. 
Palace, Bishop of Norwich's, 23, 
,, Bishop Hall's, 121. 



345 



Norfolk 



Palace, Duke of Norfolk's, 19. 

Paston, 83-85. 

Paston Family, 28, 36, 79, 83-85, 94- 

95, 176. 
" Paston Letters, 79, 84-85, 94-95. 
Patterson, Mr A., 68-76. 
Pocahontas, loi. 
Postwick, 151. 
Potter Heigham, 177. 
Prasutagus, 7. 
Priories : — 

Aldeby, 188 ; Beeston, 89 ; Binham, 
95-96 ; Bromholm, 83 ; Castle 
Acre, 128 ; Walsingham, 94-95. 
Publius Ostorius Scapula, 182. 

QUIDENHAM, 47. 

Ranworth Broad, 168. 

,, Rood Screen, 168-9. 

Raptorial Birds, J. H. Gurney's 

Collection of, 27-28. 
Red Mount Chapel, Lynn, 113. 
Red Register of Lynn, 115. 
Reedham, 5, 8, 160. 
Rising Bedehouse, iit, 

„ Castle, 109-10. 

„ Church, III. 
Robsart, Amy, 45-46. 130. 

„ Sir John, 45- 
Rockland Broad, 158. 
Rollesby Broad, 165. 
Roman Camps, 38, 39, 63, 182-3. 
Romans, 7, 68. 
Rush, James Bloomfield, 43-45- 

Salhouse Broad, 170. 
Salthouse Marshes, 90-92. 
Sandringham Church, 106-7. 

Hall, 103-8. 
Saxons, 8. 

Sea Breaches, 81-82, 112. 
Sea Fishing off Norfolk, 240-2. 
Sheringham, 90. 
" She-wolf of France," no. 
Shipden, Lost Town of, 88. 
Shoe House at Houghton, 95. 
Shooting in Norfolk, 226-32. 
Shovel, Sir Cloudesley, 9, 93. 
" Shrieking Pits of Aylmerton," 88. 
Silurians, 6. 
Smith, Sir James, 35. 
Somerton Broad, 181. 
South Walsham Broad, 168. 
Stalham Broad, 174. 
St Andrew's Hall, Norwich, 23. 
Stanfield Hall, The Tragedy of, 43- 



St Benet's Abbey, 166-8. 
St Martin's Gate, 23. 
Stiffkey, 96-97. 
Stokesby, 165. 
St Withburga's Tomb, 125. 
Surlingham, 152-3. 

„ Broad, 153. 

Swaffham, 126-7. 
Sweyn, 17. 



I 



Taylor, William, 35. 
Terrington St Clement, 118. 
Thetford, 48-52. 
Abbey Gate, 50 ; Antiquity of, 48- 

49 ; Bell Inn, 51 ; " Canons," 50 ; 

Castle Hill, 50 ; Churches, 51 ; 

Guildhall, 51 ; King's House, 51 ; 

Manor House, 51 ; " Place" Farm, 

50; Warren, 53-54. 
Thorpe Hamlet, 57. 
„ Village, 57. 
Thurnam, Dr, 6. 
Thurne, River, 177-81. 
Titus Gates, 134. 
Tourist tickets, 340. 
Trimingham, 86. 
Tyler, Wat, 9. 



Uffa, King of the East Angles, 17, 

26. 
Uvius, Abbot, 50. 



Venta Icenoruin^ 39. 



Walpole, Horace, 131, 141. 

,, Sir Robert, 9, 126, 129- 

132. 
Walsham, North, 176. 
Walsingham Abbey, 94-95. 
Walsingham, Erasmus at, 95. 

„ Way, 94. 

Warren, Thetford, 53-54. 
Warrenne, William de, 50-51, 127. 
Warwick, Earl of, 9, 18, 41. 
Wat Tyler, 19. 
Waveney, River, 182-90. . 
Weeting, 55. 
Wells, 94. 
Wherrymen, 148-9. 
Whittesley, 180. 

Wild Flowers, 143, 145-6, 199-206. 
Wild Life, 13, 68-76, 90-92, 98-99, 109, 

143-8, 178-9. 
William Rufus, 8, 17. 
Windmills, 151-2. 



Index 



Winterton, 8i. 
Wodehouse, Sir John, 46. 
„ Sir Philip, 51. 

Wolterton Hall, 141. 
Womack Broad, 177. 
Woodbastwick Broad, 170. 
Worstead, 175. 
Wrestling, 13. 
Wretham Great Mere, 7. 
,, West Mere, 6. 

Wrexham Broad, 170-1. 



Wykeham, William of, 173. 
Wymondham, 42. 

Yacht-letters, List of, 339. 

Yare, River, 150-61. 

Yarmouth, S7-67 : — 

Beachmen and their work, 63-64 ; 
Chief buildings in, 65 ; Church, 
60-61 ; Defoe at, 66 ; Disastrous 
Wrecks off, 65 ; Harbour, 62 
Old Tollhouse, 61. 



347 



PRINTED BY 

TURNBULL AND SPEARS. 

EDINBURGH 



APR 24 1902 






FollcLi^d. 




APR 24 1902 



